Advocates say thousands of legitimate providers disenrolled from high-risk Medicaid programs
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Minnesota disability service provider organizations say thousands of legitimate providers were disenrolled from 14 high-risk Medicaid programs on Monday.
As part of the state’s agreement with the federal government’s Center for Medicaid Services, the Department of Human Services was required to revalidate more than 5,000 providers of high-risk Medicaid programs by May 31. But providers and disability advocates worry many providers were disenrolled simply because the agency ran out of time.
Provider organizations say only 1,000 have been approved. As of May 27, the last day the state updated data before the deadline, the majority of provider statuses remained pending.
“They disenrolled thousands of providers simply because they didn’t get the job done,” said Josh Berg, service director for provider Accessible Space Inc.
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Human Services said they would not provide comment to MPR News until the data was finalized.
Sue Schettle, CEO of the Association of Residential Resources in Minnesota, said many members of her organization submitted the required materials to the agency, but never heard back.
“I’m worried about what’s next,” Schettle said. “It just creates sheer chaos for everybody involved.”
Cari McCann, executive director of disability services provider Great River Homes, said the state’s decision will have adverse impacts on Minnesotans receiving care.
“If we disrupted somebody’s care, they could end up in another system, in our homeless population, in our criminal justice system,” McCann said.
In a termination letter sent to Accessible Space, the state cited information gathered during a site visit as cause for disenrollment. But Berg said that site visit never occurred.
“It’s like, that’s funny, we never had a site visit for this location,” Berg said.
Earlier this year, the Trump administration froze $243 million in Medicaid funding after saying Minnesota had not adequately addressed fraud in certain programs. The state adopted a corrective action plan, which included a requirement that the state implement a revalidation program for high-risk service providers by the end of May.
Human Services said in March the agency was on track to complete the revalidation process by May 31. The federal government continues to withhold Medicaid reimbursements to Minnesota.
Providers say they’ve been assured by the agency of an appeals process for providers who believe they have been wrongfully disenrolled. Jordan Hansen, who runs an addiction recovery service, said he plans to appeal the state’s decision to disenroll his organization.
“Essentially all of our revenue has been disrupted,” Hansen said. “When we look at what’s going to happen to our patients, I’m not really sure even where to send half of these folks because so many providers in our space have been affected by these shutdowns.”
In a press release on Monday, a coalition of disability services provider organizations, including ARRM, called on state lawmakers and the human services department to reinstate disenrolled providers that submitted required documentation and are still awaiting a final review.
Listen to a conversation with Jordan Hansen, CEO of YourPath, an addiction recovery services provider and Cari McCann, executive director of Great River Homes with MPR News with Nina Moini using the audio player above.
