Enrollment In Rhode Island's Medicaid Program Drops By 6,000 In Past Year

Main Category: Medicare / Medicaid / SCHIP
Article Date: 08 Sep 2007 - 12:00 PST

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Enrollment in RIte Care, Rhode Island's Medicaid program, has declined by 4,852 beneficiaries in the last six months and by nearly 6,000 in the last year, the Providence Journal reports. More than 4,000 of the beneficiaries who lost coverage were in families with annual incomes below the federal poverty level, according to the children's policy and advocacy organization Rhode Island Kids Count.

In January, the federal government began to enforce new rules under the Deficit Reduction Act of 2005 that require Medicaid beneficiaries and applicants to provide proof of their U.S. citizenship. Advocates say that the new rules make it difficult for eligible state residents to enroll in RIte Care and are responsible for the sharp decline in enrollment in the past six months.

Linda Katz, policy director for the Poverty Institute at Rhode Island College, said that each document required for Medicaid enrollment, including an official copy of a birth certificate and four pay stubs, is "another piece of paper that has to be in someone's file before eligibility can be determined and another reason for denying them if they fail to get that piece of paper in there." Katz said the group losing Medicaid coverage "is not people who are not citizens. It's people who can't afford to get the documents they need to present."

A greater decline in enrollment is expected starting in November, when the proof-of-citizenship requirements begin to apply to renewals, advocates say. Supporters of the proof-of-citizenship requirements say they will reduce fraud and abuse within state Medicaid programs, according to the Journal (Gudrais, Providence Journal, 9/4).

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