The day her Medicaid coverage ended, Beverly Likens was in the hospital after a scary trip to the emergency room.
The Kentucky resident was diagnosed with severe anemia and given a blood transfusion after her hemoglobin levels had plummeted. Likens, 48 at the time, was days from having surgery to treat chronic uterine bleeding that she said left her bleeding “constantly.”
But soon a problem appeared: The hospital said she didn’t have Medicaid coverage, jeopardizing her procedure. Likens, who is disabled, was rocked by the news. She believed she’d done what was needed to maintain her eligibility. “I was just ready to fall to pieces,” Likens said, fearing she was “going to spend the rest of my life getting blood transfusions.”
Millions of people nationwide have lost Medicaid benefits after a pandemic-era mandate for coverage expired in March — most of them for administrative reasons unrelated to their actual eligibility. Even the Biden administration and state officials had braced for complications in the historic unwinding of the continuous enrollment requirement, and had assured the public they would guard against such lapses.
Likens and an attorney who had tried to help retain her coverage said technological errors in Kentucky’s eligibility system and state missteps caused Likens’ coverage gap, throwing her surgery into limbo. As her situation demonstrates, a lapse of even a few days can have life-altering consequences.
The state never should have let Likens become uninsured, said attorney Cara Stewart, director of policy advocacy at Kentucky Voices for Health. Stewart tried to submit a new Medicaid application for Likens before her coverage stopped in June. She got stuck in a loop in Kentucky’s online system that “didn’t go away” and prevented the form from getting through. “I was just furious,” Stewart said.
Likens should never have had to reapply for coverage, Stewart said,…
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