Mississippi To Verify Medicaid Beneficiaries’ Eligibility Before Providing Services

To reduce Medicaid costs for the fiscal year that begins July 1, applicants in Mississippi will no longer be allowed to enroll in the program and receive health benefits until their incomes are verified, the AP/Memphis Commercial Appeal reports. Currently, beneficiaries are allowed to receive care under Medicaid while program officials are verifying their eligibility, a process that can take "days or weeks." Although the state requires individuals who are later deemed ineligible to pay for medical care they improperly received through Medicaid, Rica Payton, the program's director, said it is difficult to recover a significant amount of that money because such people generally have low incomes. Payton added that she did not know how much money the new policy, which takes effect June 1, would save. Gov. Ronnie Musgrove (D) has said that legislators appropriated about $120 million less than is needed for Medicaid (Wagster, AP/Memphis Commercial Appeal, 5/8).