The Montana Primary Care Association is launching a program to help people who lost Medicaid during the state’s evaluation process reapply.
The Montana Primary Care Association will train public service providers like food banks to help the roughly 130,000 Montanans that lost Medicaid during the last year.
The state recently finished evaluating the eligibility of everyone on its Medicaid rolls. That process was on hold during the pandemic.
Olivia Riutta with the Primary Care Association said the process of reapplying can be confusing and there are many people who are still eligible or lost coverage for procedural reasons.
“We are working to increase the capacity across the state so that people who have lost Medicaid or Healthy Montana Kids can reapply for coverage as quickly as possible,” Riutta said.
Riutta is encouraging organizations that can’t directly help people re-apply to refer them to the Primary Care Association's Cover Montana program. That program provides remote and in-person help to people applying for Medicaid or buying insurance on the federal marketplace.
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Montanans who need help shopping for health insurance or enrolling in Medicaid may soon be on their own. The Trump administration is cutting federal funding for a service that helped people get insured. -
The Montana State Hospital lost its federal certification in 2022 due to patient deaths. That decertification means the state can’t bill Medicaid or Medicare for patient services – a funding loss that has cost the state millions of dollars. State health officials plan to apply for federal recertification next year. -
The state health department plans to request federal approval to enact both Medicaid work requirements and co-payments for doctor visits in September. The department opened a 60-day public comment period. -
Montana is one of eleven states in the country where older adults outnumber children, according to a recent report from the U.S. Census Bureau. -
People on Medicare or Medicaid struggle to access mental and behavioral health services. That’s according to a new federal report. -
Montana’s U.S. Senators backed President Donald Trump’s colossal tax and spending bill in a razor-thin vote July 1. The “One Big Beautiful Bill Act” has passed the Senate.
