Unhealthy levels of air in Twin Cities and central Minnesota

MPR News helps you turn down the noise and build shared understanding. Turn up your support for this public resource and keep trusted journalism accessible to all. 

Turn Up Your Support

Following widespread outcry from providers and state lawmakers, the Minnesota Department of Human Services said it will lift payment suspensions for providers who filed an appeal, according to a memo sent to providers and obtained by MPR News on Wednesday.

Any providers who submitted an appeal by June 9 will have their payment suspension lifted by the end of the day on June 11, the agency said in the memo. 

“It’s a nice gesture,” said Sen. Jim Abeler, R-Anoka, who sits on the Senate Human Services Committee. “The whole process has been a disaster from the very beginning.”

 with the federal government’s Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services, the Department of Human Services was required to revalidate nearly 5,600 providers of high-risk Medicaid programs by May 31. According to data released last week, the agency disenrolled more than 3,400 providers, about sixty percent, the majority due to incomplete paperwork and documentation.

expressed concerns that they were disenrolled

 simply because the agency ran out of time to revalidate them before the deadline. 

“If their level of review capacity is so lousy they can’t tell a quality legacy provider from somebody who’s new and they’re driving around a Range Rover…and providing bad services, then they really should be ashamed of themselves,” Abeler said. 

Previously, the human services department said 

disenrolled providers would not be able to receive payment during the appeal process

. Many providers raised concerns that they would be forced to close, putting vulnerable Minnesotans who rely on Medicaid at risk. 

“What’s at risk are lives of Minnesotans and in retaining quality care here in the state,” said Mike Beltowsky, vice president of program development at Horowitz Integrated Services, a substance use and mental health provider that was disenrolled.

The human services department did not respond to a request from MPR News for comment on the payment suspension lift.

Wendy Jones, executive director of the Minnesota Alliance of Recovery Community Organizations, said the revalidation process has caused many providers to lose trust in the human services department.

“DHS can’t execute massive amounts of social services without all these providers,” Jones said. “There needs to be a sustained commitment and follow-through to that recognition that these are partners and we should be supporting the fidelity of that work in any way possible.”

Health

NewsPartners

Homepage

Ellie Roth

Author

Minnesota’s Department of Human Services says it will restore Medicaid payments to providers who appealed their disenrollment, after providers and lawmakers warned that payment suspensions could force closures and put vulnerable Minnesotans at risk.

State lifts payment suspensions for disenrolled providers who filed an appeal

Go Deeper.

Like this?

News you can use in your inbox