WASHINGTON, DC – Today, Representative Raúl M. Grijalva (AZ-07) sent a letter to Carmen Heredia, Director of the Arizona Health Care Cost Containment System (AHCCCS) encouraging her to take every action possible to ensure Arizonans can renew coverage, or transition to other available coverage if they are no longer eligible for Medicaid or CHIP with the impending end of continuous eligibility requirements for Medicaid on April 1, 2023.
Medicaid flexibilities and expansions were implemented during the COVID-19 Public Health Emergency (PHE). It’s estimated 600,000 Arizonans that are currently at risk of losing coverage because they are either ineligible for Medicaid Coverage or have not responded to requests for information from AHCCCS to continue eligibility.
AHCCCS has taken positive steps in the unwinding plan to address this issue by utilizing waivers, partnering with trusted groups, streamlining renewal and employing mass and targeted communication strategies. In the letter, Rep. Grijalva asked AHCCCS to further detail the implementation of these strategies to ensure the needs of vulnerable groups are met during this phase-out period, including:
- Community Partners were referenced in the unwinding plan, but a list of partner organizations was not available. Can AHCCCS provide the list of partner organizations that they are working with to tailor mass and targeted communication?
- Are there adequate language supports incorporated into all mass and targeted communication tools that meet the diverse communication needs of Arizonans?
- Has the capacity of the technological systems associated with the unwinding been tested to ensure it is both accessible and able to withstand the hundreds of thousands of Arizonans who will need to utilize the system? Have systems that need to interface been tested to ensure they can properly do so?
- Are there plans to engage with stakeholders throughout the process to receive real-time feedback on what is working and what problems are arising?
The full letter can be found here.