Stakeholders Ask CMS To Keep Medicaid Renewals Data Transparent

This article was originally published in Inside Health Policy on December 21, 2023

​A coalition of providers, insurers and beneficiary advocates want CMS to continue publicly sharing Medicaid redetermination data long after the post-pandemic renewals period ends, as well as consider stratifying these data to show differences between race, ethnicity or population.

We strongly believe this data will provide valuable insights into access to coverage and will greatly assist in ensuring that individuals continue to have access to the health insurance coverage for which they are eligible,” the Connecting to Coverage Coalition said in a Dec. 12 letter to CMS.
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AHIP, Medicaid Health Plans of America, the American Medical Association, American Academy of Pediatrics and American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network were among several of the 23 organizations that signed the letter.

The coalition didn’t specify which redetermination data it wants to see CMS continue once states resume normal redeterminations, but the agency’s unwinding data reports have included information on call center wait times, automatic renewal rates and how many beneficiaries lost Medicaid or CHIP coverage due to administrative or paperwork issues.

The letter also asked CMS to stratify the data to better track how certain populations -- children, dually eligible beneficiaries, pregnant and postpartum people, and aged, blind or disabled enrollees -- are navigating renewals. It would also be helpful to disaggregate data by race and ethnicity, the organizations wrote.

“We understand the challenges states face in collecting information pertaining to race and ethnicity and believe that state reporting of information disaggregated by a beneficiary’s preferred language may provide similar insight into the impact unwinding may have on minority communities,” the letter states.

CMS should also consider collecting and publicly posting information on how many Medicaid beneficiaries had to reinstate their coverage after being previously terminated, the coalition wrote.