What Happens When the COVID Emergency Order Ends?
You’ve probably heard that the Covid-19 emergency order will be sunsetting soon. Are you wondering what happens when the Covid emergency order ends? It means millions of people who are on Medicaid will lose it on or after May 11, 2023. In a normal year, people on Medicaid have to requalify and prove that their income and assets still qualify them for Medicaid. The Kaiser Family Foundation estimates that 5-14 million people could lose Medicaid. For people who are already near the poverty level, and in a time of high inflation, this is going to be a severe blow to many seniors and families.
If you have a lot of DSNP clients, prepare for this coming nightmare. Warn your clients what will happen and how long it could take to reapply, appeal or find other coverages. (No one knows for sure how the states will be able to deal with the backlog). Since Medicaid is a joint state/federal program, states can extend the May 11th deadline and a few have. But most states want people off their roles, if they don’t qualify.
Medicaid No Longer Covering Free Covid Vaccines
Another result of the public health emergency ending, is that people on Medicaid will no longer get free COVID vaccines. Medicare recipients will though.
During COVID, Medicare expanded telehealth. Seniors loved it, but so did unscrupulous doctors who billed millions in fraudulent claims. This healthful service now goes away unless your Senior lives in a rural areas. However, Medicare has made permanent the expansion of telehealth for Medicare members who are in need of mental health and substance abuse, even when providers are in different states.
The Bottom Line
There is a lot more to this topic, mostly surrounding how hospitals will be covered for COVID patient care, antiviral drug cost and more. I’ll summarize it here: you’ll pay more for COVID related treatment, and doctors and hospitals will be paid less.
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Sylvia Gordon and her sister, Rebecca, run Gordon Marketing, one of the nation’s largest Medicare FMO/NMA offices. They have a team of over 100 that train and support independent insurance agents in all 50 states. You can find Sylvia’s weekly posts on LinkedIn and the sisters' Youtube channel posts 2 training videos each week. Contact Sylvia at sgordon@gordonmarketing.com or 800-388-8342.
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