More Than One-Third of Medicaid Members Say Their Health Plan Didn’t Reach Out About Renewing Coverage to Maintain Benefits

Harris Poll/Icario Survey Also Finds That 55% of Members 65-Plus Said Their Plan Hasn’t Reached Out to Them

MINNEAPOLIS, July 31, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Icario, the healthcare industry’s largest health action company, today announced the results of a survey conducted on their behalf by The Harris Poll surrounding the topic of Medicaid redetermination. According to the survey, more than one-third of Medicaid members (35%) said their health plan didn’t reach out about renewing their coverage to keep their Medicaid benefits for the upcoming year.

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, it has been three years since Medicaid enrollees had to recertify their eligibility to maintain benefits. The public health emergency ended in May 2023, meaning plans have had nearly three full months to perform member outreach, yet 35% of Medicaid members still report not hearing from their plans. With redetermination underway, KFF says at least 3.19 million Medicaid members have been disenrolled as of July 20, based on the most current data from 33 states and the District of Columbia. The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) previously estimated that up to 6.8 million who still qualify for Medicaid coverage will become automatically disenrolled if they don’t complete recertification.

“It’s on health plans to engage with members and educate them on what needs to happen to avoid being disenrolled, and the survey results indicate a significant number of plans aren’t doing so sufficiently,” said Troy Jelinek, chief commercial officer at Icario. “Luckily, Icario has had proven success helping plans avoid losing members through a combination of advisory research, guidance, recommendations, education and an effective omnichannel outreach strategy.”

A Larger Disconnect With Older Medicaid Members
The Harris Poll/Icario survey also found that older members have had even more trouble connecting with their health plan to guide them through the redetermination process. Specifically, 55% of Medicaid members age 65 and older say their health plan hasn’t reached out about renewing coverage.

On the flip side, there is evidence that plans that have successfully connected with members are doing a good job of providing the info that members need. A full 93% of those who said their health plan reached out about renewing their coverage felt their health plan provided the appropriate information and resources needed to complete the Medicaid renewal process.

“The survey data indicates that most plans do a relatively good job of giving their members the data they need, but that they’ve had greater difficulty in reaching them in the first place,” Jelinek said. “The results show that the older the member is, the more likely they are to report not hearing from their health plan. This means that plans can do a better job of tracking down their older members, who also tend to be a part of higher-risk populations, and educating themselves about communication preferences across age groups.”

Plans that need help recertifying members can leverage Icario’s Medicaid Redetermination solution via Icario’s health action platform, which provides Medicaid plans with a full suite of services to help plan and guide members through redetermination.

Additional Resources

• View the Icario webinar “Redetermination Strategies to Maximize Continuous Medicaid Coverage”
• Get answers to the Top 5 Medicaid Redetermination Questions
• Read Icario’s Medicaid Redetermination Checklist

Survey Methodology
The survey was conducted online within the United States by The Harris Poll on behalf of Icario from July 18 – 20, 2023, among 957 U.S. adults ages 18 and older covered by Medicaid. The sampling precision of Harris online polls is measured by using a Bayesian credible interval. For this study, the sample data is accurate to within +/- 3.7 percentage points using a 95% confidence level. For complete survey methodology, including weighting variables and subgroup sample sizes, please contact icario@bocacommunications.com.

About Icario
Icario is the leading digital-first health action company driving the next generation of healthcare. Powering over 100 million connections with people, the company’s health action platform unites whole-person data, behavioral science, and digital-first omnichannel pathways to personally connect everyone to health. Icario deeply understands people and delivers personalization at scale for the most trusted healthcare organizations in all 50 states, including eight of the 10 largest health plans. Learn more at www.icariohealth.com.

BOCA Communications for Icario
icario@bocacommunications.com