More than 254K determined ineligible in West Virginia Medicaid unwinding

(The Center Square) – West Virginia now has less than 514,000 residents on Medicaid managed care plans after the yearlong post-pandemic unwinding of eligibility checks.

That state had a high of more than 667,000 on those Medicaid plans in April 2023 as the federal governments pause on eligibility checks – which began in March 2020 – ended.

States were then required to check the eligibility of all of those on Medicaid in the year from April 2023 to March 2024.

Those eligibility checks, however, are an ongoing process as paperwork is returned or the West Virginia Bureau for Medical Services requires more documentation.

Over the 14-month period starting in April 2023 and running through May 2024, the department has reviewed 571,276 members’ eligibility.

Of those, more than 317,000 continued coverage and more than 254,000 were denied future coverage. New enrollment also continued, leading to the 514,000 total enrollees as of June numbers released by the department.

Of those denied continuing coverage, more than 168,000 were due to paperwork that was not returned and done on procedural grounds while more than 53,000 were deemed ineligible and more than 32,000 returned incomplete paperwork.