Medicaid renewals for children begin July 1, after a five-year pause

By  Melissa Patrick
Kentucky Health News

Starting July 1, Kentucky families must once again complete annual Medicaid renewals for their children, following a five-year pause on the requirement that began during the Covid-19 pandemic.

This change will impact more than 600,000 Kentucky children who are covered by Medicaid and the Kentucky Children’s Health Insurance Program, more commonly known as KCHIP.

At a June 17 ThriveKY webinar that gave an update on state and federal policies that impact the state’s safety net programs, Priscilla Easterling, director of outreach and enrollment at Kentucky Voices for Health, said the most important thing for Kentuckians with children to do is to make sure their contact information is up to date at kynect.ky.gov or by calling 855-4kynect (855-459-6328).

“You can do that by logging into your own self-service portal or calling the call center or reaching out to a Kynector,” she said.

Kynectors are available to help Kentuckians enroll in health coverage through Kynect. Their services are free and they are available in every county.

ThriveKy is a coalition that works to meet the basic needs of Kentuckians. It is co-led by KVH and the Kentucky Center for Economic Policy.

Easterling also reminded Kentuckians to check to see if their children qualify for health insurance through Medicaid, even if the adults in the household do not. In other words, she said, don’t assume anything — let the system make the determination. That’s because the income limit for children is “much, much higher” than for adults.

“For example, for a household of four, the limit, the income limit for adults, is $44,000 — so above $44,000 the adults would not be eligible,” she said. “But for children, they would be eligible up to $70,000… in the household’s income. So just keep that in mind. When in doubt, just fill it out.”

Other suggestions for families include:

• Watch for mail, email, or phone notices from the state about their child’s renewal.
• Respond quickly to any of the state’s requests for information or forms.
• When in doubt, find free help from a Kynector or a local Department for Community Based Services (DCBS) office.