Ensuring Patient Coverage: How Kansas Hospitals Can Help During Medicaid Unwinding
(Aug. 18, 2023) – Hospitals play a crucial role in supporting patients during the Medicaid Unwinding. Here are two ways the Cover Kansas project can support Kansas hospitals in providing assistance to patients:
- Educating Patients:
One of the primary ways hospitals can assist patients during Unwinding is by providing comprehensive and up-to-date information about the changes in KanCare coverage. Hospitals can set up educational workshops, online resources and informative materials to help patients understand the shifting landscape of Medicaid eligibility criteria, enrollment periods and available alternatives.- The KanCare Renewals Dashboard has printable resources in several languages, frequently asked questions from the Kansas Department of Health and Environment, and social media toolkits to help with keeping patients informed.
- Follow Cover Kansas for easily sharable posts.
- Find up-to-date information on how many individuals, by county and age, have been approved, discontinued and are in the 90-day window.
- Assisting with Enrollment:
As patients become ineligible for KanCare, hospitals can assist in navigating the enrollment process for other health care coverage options. This may involve helping patients apply for private insurance plans, ACA marketplace plans or other state-funded health care programs.- If a patient loses Medicaid and is interested in Marketplace coverage, Cover Kansas Navigators can assist with applications at no cost. Click here to find the nearest Cover Kansas Navigator or call toll-free (866) 826-8375 from anywhere in Kansas.
- Request materials about Navigators for your hospital.
If there are other questions about this process or ways Cover Kansas can support your staff, please contact Kate Gramlich at kgramlich@communitycareks.org.
--Cindy Samuelson