MM Curator summary
Newly eligible expansion members won’t get their applications processed for another month while the state works on system changes.
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JEFFERSON CITY — A Department of Social Services official told employees recently that forms from Missourians seeking health care coverage under Medicaid expansion “will sit there” for nearly two months while the state makes system updates.
“The applications will sit there until we have the eligibility piece in, which will be Oct. 1,” Kim Evans, director of the Family Support Division, told workers in a video obtained by the Post-Dispatch through an open records request.
Despite the planned delay, the Aug. 11 video also indicates the state currently has the ability to enroll new applicants, a departure from a news release sent out the same day by Gov. Mike Parson’s office, which suggested it didn’t.
“Staff will go ahead and do the verifications that are needed on the applications,” Evans said. “But what we will do is, we will not — we will not run a determination. We will not finalize these applications. We will let the system do that on October the first.”
Parson’s news release didn’t mention DSS’ apparent ability to “run a determination” or “finalize” applications prior to Oct. 1.
The recorded message, as well as Parson’s newsrelease, followed a Cole County judge’s Aug. 10 order directing the state not to deny Medicaid applications from individuals eligible under expansion, which 53% of voters supported in an August 2020 referendum.