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.
-
Medicaid expansion will be on the table for Montana lawmakers to consider during the next legislative session. Officials are studying the policy’s impact ahead of that debate.
-
Enrollment for Montana’s health insurance marketplace is open until January 15. Insurance providers are seeing a surge in enrollment after more than 100,000 Montanans were removed from Medicaid this year. And the feds urge action after an 18% drop in Medicaid coverage of kids in the state.
-
The head of Montana’s health department has no plans to temporarily stop checking patients' Medicaid eligibility. About one in 10 Montanans have lost coverage through that process this year.
-
A state commission is asking Gov. Greg Gianforte to approve $7.5 million for mobile crisis teams and stabilization centers.
-
New data from the Montana Health Department show nearly 16,000 people lost Medicaid coverage in August. According to Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks, over 2,100 hunters visited wildlife check stations as big game general hunting season opened Saturday.
-
A new report from the Montana health department shows nearly half of people who’ve lost Medicaid coverage in the state since April are children.