Overview

Paperwork can be hazardous to your health. According to new research, New York State's laborious recertification process for public health insurance helps keep a large number of New Yorkers uninsured, even though they are eligible for public coverage. Many eligible individuals inappropriately lose coverage from the state's Medicaid, Family Health Plus (FHP), or Child Health Plus (CHP) programs because they fail to complete required documentation —not because changes in their economic or family circumstances make them ineligible for continued coverage.

In the Commonwealth Fund analysis Rethinking Recertification: Keeping Eligible Individuals Enrolled in New York's Public Health Insurance Programs, researchers Karen Lipson, Eliot Fishman, Patricia Boozang, and Deborah Bachrach report that the current review processes are not needed to ensure that people do not retain coverage for which they are no longer eligible. Only a fraction (less than 7%) of CHP B beneficiaries are ineligible for coverage at the time of recertification, based on income and family size.

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