Community health centers should start planning for a surge in demand for Outreach and Enrollment (O&E) supports once the Public Health Emergency (PHE) officially ends – at which point millions of patients will be at risk of losing their Medicaid coverage. Once the PHE ends, O&E workers will be needed to assist current Medicaid enrollees to:
- Ensure that they are not dropped from Medicaid unnecessarily (e.g., because they didn’t receive the redetermination notice from Medicaid, or didn’t submit the proper documentation)
- Find affordable alternatives if they lose Medicaid.
The soonest that the PHE could end is mid-July but could be later. The current COVID PHE runs through mid-April. The White House has committed to providing at least 60 days advance notice of its plans to not extend the COVID PHE. We are currently now less than 60 days from the April renewal date, which means the PHE will be renewed for at least another 90 days, which brings us to mid-July. CMS will provide the higher FMAP through the end of the calendar quarter in which the PHE ends. Thus, if the PHE ends in mid-July, the higher FMAP would end on September 30.