Missouri
Missouri has lost 200,000 Medicaid enrollees in the last year. More than half were children
Missouri’s Medicaid enrollment has shrunk by around 200,000 people since last summer, as the state continues the process of undoing a COVID-era pause on eligibility checks.
The federal suspension on annual renewals expired last year and since then, states have been undergoing the process of re-verifying each participant’s eligibility.
From June to April, Missouri’s net enrollment in Medicaid — which is also called MO HealthNet — dropped by 197,525 people.
Over half — 56% — of that net decline was among children, according to recent state data and analysis by the Center for Advancing Health Services, Policy & Economics Research at Washington University in St. Louis. There were 110,938 kids who lost coverage in that period.
The number of kids being removed has been a source of concern over the last few months among advocates. Although kids make up around half of the state’s caseload, they are also eligible at much higher household income level than adults.
As the state evaluates hundreds of thousands of current Medicaid recipients each month and processes their updated information, it continues to receive new applications.
Federal data released earlier this month showed Missouri’s application processing times have been among the worst in the nation.
Medicaid applications are generally required to be reviewed within 45 days. Nationwide, most applications were processed within 24 hours last year.
Missouri and New Mexico had the highest rates of late Medicaid determinations last year, according to the federal data, which covers October through December.
In December, more than half of Missouri’s applications took longer than 45 days to process.
Long processing times can mean low-resource and low-income patients must delay or forego needed medical care and prescriptions.
And Missouri has struggled to meet that limit in the past: In summer 2022, the federal government initiated a mitigation plan with the state to get the wait time down.
At the quarterly MO HealthNet Oversight Committee meeting last week, chair Nick Pfannenstiel, a dentist, raised concerns about processing times.
Pfannenstiel said as a provider, he has been told by state eligibility workers that the current average processing time is “60 to 90 days.” Though he knows the state is working to fix those delays, “that’s causing a lot of frustration, not necessarily from a provider standpoint only but from a patient standpoint.”
Todd Richardson, director of MO HealthNet, said that there are a “number of strategies and a lot of focus right now trying to bring that back down to the 45 day window” that is federally mandated.
Part of the issue is the agency is receiving a large number of applications, Richardson added.
From November to mid-January, during open enrollment season for the federal insurance marketplace, the state generally sees an uptick in Medicaid applications and then a decline and plateau, he said.
“We are not seeing that now,” Richardson said. “[Family Support Division] is continuing to experience a high number of daily new applications, and as a result, you can see that increase in the number of pending applications that we have.”
The number of pending applications reached nearly 53,000 in January and stands at just under 18,000 as of April.
“I know [Family Support Division] has been working exhaustively, trying to bring that number of pending applications down and I know they’ve had some success,” he said, “but there will continue to be kind of an intense review on the state’s part to make sure that we’re getting those applications as current as we possibly can.”
Baylee Watts, DSS’ communications director, said the division has “focused its staff and resources on processing applications that have exceeded 45 days” and continues training staff across several programs and “strategically reallocating staff to manage the workload effectively.”
There can be issues when a patient is on Medicaid but needs to change the category of coverage they qualify for, Pfannenstiel also noted, referring to a patient trying to convert to postpartum Medicaid as causing providers confusion as to whether the person is eligible for services.
A patient previously told the Independentshe spent more than a month just trying to switch from adult Medicaid to Medicaid for Pregnant Women. In the meantime, she didn’t go to any doctor’s appointments.
Richardson said it is currently a “manual process” for state workers to move Medicaid participants into the postpartum category. Since last year, women can receive postpartum coverage for a full year rather than 60 days.
It is also a manual process for children to receive what’s called continuous eligibility, which went into effect this year after it was federally required. That policy allows kids to stay insured for the full year after they are renewed, rather than be potentially stripped of coverage between renewals, due to something like temporary changes in income.
There are system changes to automate those processes planned for June, Richardson said.
This story was originally published by the Missouri Independent, part of the States Newsroom.
Copyright 2024 St. Louis Public Radio
Missouri
Missouri (MSHSAA) High School Girls Basketball State Playoff Brackets, Matchup, Schedule – March 9, 2026
The 2026 Missouri high school basketball state championship brackets continue on Monday, March 9, with eight games in the sectional and quarterfinal round of the higher classifications.
High School On SI has brackets for every classification in the Missouri high school basketball playoffs. The championship games will begin on March 19.
Missouri High School Girls Basketball 2026 Playoff Brackets, Schedule (MSHSAA) – March 9, 2026
Sectionals
Doniphan vs. Potosi – 03/09, 6:00 PM CT
St. James vs. St. Francis Borgia – 03/09, 6:00 PM CT
Notre Dame de Sion vs. Oak Grove – 03/09, 6:00 PM CT
Smithville vs. Benton – 03/09, 6:00 PM CT
Cardinal Ritter College Prep vs. Clayton – 03/09, 6:00 PM CT
Orchard Farm vs. Kirksville – 03/09, 6:00 PM CT
Boonville vs. Strafford – 03/09, 6:00 PM CT
Reeds Spring vs. Nevada – 03/09, 6:00 PM CT
Quarterfinals
Festus vs. Lift for Life Academy – 03/13, 6:00 PM CT
Grandview vs. Kearney – 03/13, 6:00 PM CT
MICDS vs. St. Dominic – 03/13, 6:00 PM CT
Helias vs. Marshfield – 03/13, 6:00 PM CT
Quarterfinals
Jackson vs. Marquette – 03/13, 6:00 PM CT
Rock Bridge vs. Staley – 03/13, 6:00 PM CT
Incarnate Word Academy vs. Troy-Buchanan – 03/13, 6:00 PM CT
Kickapoo vs. Lee’s Summit West – 03/13, 6:00 PM CT
More Coverage from High School On SI
Missouri Gov. Mike Kehoe’s request to grade public schools on an “A” through “F” scale is pushing House lawmakers to approve legislation some think isn’t quite ready.
With approval and dissent on both sides of the aisle, the House voted a bill to create a new school accountability system through to the Senate 96-53 Thursday despite concerns the letter grades could be a “scarlet letter” for underperforming schools.
“Will this labeling system actually improve schools or will it mostly brand communities, destabilize staffing and incentivize gaming rather than learning?” asked state Rep. Kem Smith, a Democrat from Florissant, during House debate Tuesday morning, March 3.
She said the key metrics that determine the grade, performance and growth, are volatile.
“The label itself can become a self-fulfilling prophecy,” she said. “The bill doubles down on high stakes metrics that are known to be unstable.”
The bill’s sponsor, state Rep. Dane Diehl, a Republican from Butler, told lawmakers that a performance-based school report card with “A” through “F” grades is inevitable. The details, though, are negotiable.
“The governor’s executive order, it is going to happen either way,” he said. “I think we tried to make that process a little better for school districts.”
Kehoe’s order directs the state’s education department to draw up a plan for the report cards and present it to the State Board of Education. The board could reject the idea, but with a board with primarily new members appointed by Kehoe, lawmakers have accepted the system as fate.
State Rep. Ed Lewis, a Republican from Moberly and chair of the House’s education committee, told the committee in January that he prioritized the bill as a way to give lawmakers influence over the final outcome. He is happy with the edits the committee made, which gives the education department more leeway to determine grade thresholds and removes a provision that would raise expectations once 65% of schools achieve “A” or “B” grades.
The House also approved an amendment March 3 that would grade schools’ environment. This would be based on the rates of student suspension, seclusion and restraint incident rates and satisfaction surveys given to students, parents and teachers.
The Senate’s version, which passed out of its education committee last week, does not include those changes.
“I think (the House bill) is the best product we have in the Capitol right now,” Lewis said. “I am not saying it’s complete, but it is the best we have right now.”
The changes have softened some skeptics of the legislation, like state Rep. Brad Pollitt.
Pollitt, a Sedalia Republican, said he didn’t support the legislation “for a number of years.” But with the edits, he sees potential for the legislation to usher in changes to the way the state accredits public schools.
The current process, he said, “nobody seems to like,” pointing to widespread concerns with the state’s standardized test.
Some of these changes are already happening quietly. The Department of Elementary and Secondary Education received a grant from the federal government to develop a state assessment based on through-year testing, which would measure student growth throughout the school year, instead of a single summative assessment.
The department is poised to pilot the new test in 14 classrooms this spring, hoping to eventually offer it statewide within a few years. But the estimated startup cost of $2 million is one of many department requests cut from the governor’s proposed budget as the state grapples with declining revenue.
Creating the “A” through “F” report cards is estimated to cost a similar amount, if not more, according to the state’s fiscal note. The expense is largely frontloaded, going to the programming and technology support required to create the grade cards’ interface.
When The Independent asked Kehoe’s office about the fiscal note, the governor’s communications director Gabby Picard said he would work with “associated agencies” to determine appropriate funding “while remaining mindful of the current budget constraints and maintaining fiscal responsibility.”
The House’s version of the legislation includes an incentive program for high-performing schools, giving bonuses to go toward teacher recruitment and retention, if the legislature appropriates funding for the program.
The bill originally proposed incentives of $50-100 per student to subsidize teacher pay. This had large fiscal implications, and Lewis surmised that it would violate a section of the State Constitution prohibiting bonuses for public employees.
Making the funding optional and directing it to the school’s teacher recruitment and retention fund remedied those concerns. The Senate Education Committee removed the incentive program in its version of the legislation.
The House’s approval Thursday does not stop discussion and possible amendments. Next, the bill will go to the Senate for consideration, and if any changes are made, it will return to the House for more discussion.
This story was first published at missouriindependent.com.
KANSAS CITY, Mo. — A car chase ended Sunday in downtown Kansas City, Missouri, according to police.
Around 2:15 p.m., people downtown reported a large police presence at 19th and Main streets.
Police said a car chase ended at the intersection after the suspect struck other vehicles.
Ryan Gamboa/KSHB 41
The suspect was taken into custody, per KCPD.
Due to the incident blocking the intersection, KC Streetcar service between Union Station and the River Market was temporarily suspended.
Braden Bates/KSHB 41
Streetcar service to downtown riders was restored before 4 p.m.
A KC Streetcar Authority spokesperson confirmed the streetcar was not involved in the KCPD incident.
This is a developing news story and may be updated.
—
If you have any information about a crime, you may contact your local police department directly. But if you want or need to remain anonymous, you should contact the Greater Kansas City Crime Stoppers Tips Hotline by calling 816-474-TIPS (8477), submitting the tip online or through the free mobile app at P3Tips.com. Depending on your tip, Crime Stoppers could offer you a cash reward.
Annual homicide details and data for the Kansas City area are available through the KSHB 41 News Homicide Tracker, which was launched in 2015. Read the KSHB 41 News Mug Shot Policy.
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