Thousands of Montanans lost Medicaid coverage, not because they weren’t eligible, but due to “unapproachable and unmanageable” administrative barriers at the state health department.

That’s according to a letter signed by 66 national and state organizations sent to Gov. Greg Gianforte last week asking him to include money to add additional staff to the Department of Public Health and Human Services and update outdated software, among other requests, in his budget proposal for the 2027 biennium.

The Medicaid redetermination process took place following a freeze on disenrollments during the Covid-19 pandemic, and took a total 135,000 enrollees off of Medicaid. The state’s redetermination dashboard cites the most frequent reason for disenrolling as a lack of correspondence with the department. Many former enrollees who may still be eligible now have to apply for Medicaid again for health coverage, with longer-than-usual wait times and Medicaid providers struggling to make ends meet as applications are processed.

The letter suggested consumer advisory groups, focus groups, surveys, and end-user testing to improve the state’s communication with clients – and said health department staffers should use plain language with clients to help reduce delays.

The state health department previously told the Daily Montanan it meets all federal standards for processing both redeterminations and new applications. Spokesperson for the department Jon Ebelt said Monday it is taking the requests in the letter under consideration in its budget planning.

“The letter makes specific budget requests, and at this time, DPHHS is in the preliminary stages of the executive budget planning process for the upcoming legislative session,” Ebelt said in a statement. “DPHHS appreciates the feedback and suggestions included in the letter and will consider them.”

The letter was addressed to Gianforte, but the Governor’s Office on Monday deferred to DPHHS in response to questions. DPHHS Director Charlie Brereton, as well as Human Services Executive Director Jessie Counts, Medicaid Chief Financial Manager Gene Hermanson and Director of Budget and Program Planning Ryan Osmundson were copied on the letter as well.

Jackie Semmens with the Montana Budget and Policy Center, told legislators Thursday the organizations who signed onto the letter included food pantries, healthcare providers and faith organizations – places people turn to when they “can’t get the benefits they qualify for in a timely manner.”

“These organizations see people coming to food pantries when they are forced to choose between paying out of pocket for prescription or feeding their family because their Medicaid determination is delayed,” Semmens said. “These 60 plus organizations have seen firsthand how strapped the department has been during the past year, which is why they have joined together to ask the governor to improve access to public assistance.”

Organizations include the Montana Food Bank Network, the Fort Peck Tribal Health Department, Montana Head Start Association and the American Heart Association.

The letter, sent June 17, said the health department cuts made in 2017 led to 19 public assistance offices across the state to close and resulted in pressure on the staff that was left.

Medicaid unwinding exacerbated these existing issues, the letter said, and “highlighted the ways in which Montana’s safety net is outdated, inaccessible, and cumbersome for those most in need.” The organizations asked that as the governor’s administration develops its 2027 biennial budget, they invest and modernize access to Montana’s safety net services.

Prior to each legislative session, the governor releases a budget with proposals for spending for the upcoming two fiscal years. The legislature ultimately has the power to appropriate funds, but the budget is a public statement of the investments the executive office wishes to make and approve. The legislature will meet again in January 2025.

Letter: state website is hard to navigate, more in-person assistance options needed

The organizations want to see more options for in-person assistance, which could include the reopening of rural public assistance offices. Applications completed in person are less likely to contain errors, the letter said, and would reduce procedural delays.

“In-person assistance is an essential lifeline for elderly, disabled, and rural individuals,” the organizations said.

The state health department’s website to apply for safety net services like Medicaid or food assistance is hard to navigate, the letter said, and during the unwinding process, phone lines were jammed with people having to wait hours to speak to someone. The organizations believe the solution to the problems is better staffing at the department, although their letter did not specify how many more employees they believe are needed.

“With rural Montanans relying on these means of application, Montana should make significant investments to improve their functionality,” the letter read.

The letter said understaffing was what led to procedural delays during the Medicaid unwinding. Ebelt previously listed limited staff as one reason for Medicaid delays, along with prioritization for individuals with current inactive coverage as well as verifying previously unreported resources. He said the state meets the federal standard of paying 90 percent of “clean claims” (claims not needing additional verification) within 30 days, and 99 percent of “clean claims” in 90 days.

About 9% of cases are still pending eligibility, Counts told legislators, translating to a little under 20,000 cases.

Daily Montanan is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Daily Montanan maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Darrell Ehrlick for questions: [email protected]. Follow Daily Montanan on Facebook and X.

GNP’s Going to the Sun Road opens for the season

Aaron Bolton | Montana Public Radio

Going to the Sun Road in Glacier National Park has fully opened for the season. Park officials opened the road Saturday.

The visitor center at Logan Pass is open, but drinking water isn’t yet available.

The road is opening with some changes to the vehicle reservation system. A reservation is required from 6 a.m. to 3 p.m. for cars entering through West Glacier. Reservations aren’t required at the St. Mary entrance on the east side of the park.

Shuttle services along the road will begin July 1.

Woman dies after falling into St. Mary Falls in GNP

Edward O’Brien | Montana Public Radio

A Pennsylvania woman died yesterday Sunday afternoon after falling into the water in Glacier National Park.

Park officials say the 26-year-old woman fell into the water above St. Mary Falls on the park’s east side.

According to witnesses, the woman was washed over the falls and trapped under the very cold and fast water for several minutes.

A park news release says bystanders pulled her from the water and administered CPR until emergency responders arrived.

Park rangers and an ambulance team from Babb took over CPR upon arrival.

An ALERT helicopter crew also assisted with resuscitation efforts, but the victim never regained consciousness.

The victim’s name has not yet been released pending notification of next of kin.

The death is under investigation. It is Glacier’s first fatality of the summer season.

Browning residents to see relief after being overcharged on tax bills 

Shaylee Ragar | Montana Public Radio

State officials are working to get refunds to Browning residents who were overcharged on their property tax bills.

Lee Montana first reported homeowners in Browning received unusually high appraisal values and property tax bills last fall — some four times the amount they paid last year.

That led the state Department of Revenue to re-evaluate the homeowners’ properties. The agency says a computing error miscalculated the values of 385 properties in town.

Bryce Kaatz with the department told lawmakers on Monday that all affected residents should receive letters with their updated appraisals this week. He said the department is working with Glacier County to issue refunds to homeowners as quickly as possible.

Kaatz says the agency is looking at safeguards to prevent the error from happening again.

(The Center Square) – Montana has one of the longest shares of the U.S. border with Canada of any state. However, it’s the other border – nearly 1,000 miles away – that is becoming a flashpoint in the state’s ongoing U.S. Senate race.

Montana’s U.S. Senate seat currently held by Democratic Sen. Jon Tester is up for re-election this year, with Tester running against Republican nominee Tim Sheehy, a former Navy SEAL and aerial firefighter. Sheehy has consistently attacked Tester on immigration and border security – seeking to paint him as an enabler of President Joe Biden’s record on illegal immigration from Mexico – forcing Tester to defend his record.

“What’s happening at the southern border is an absolute crisis, and it gets worse each day under the Biden administration and with career politicians like Jon Tester who talk a tough game about border security but aren’t getting the job done,” Sheehy writes on his campaign website. “The result of an open southern border is more crime and drugs flooding into our country and into our Montana communities.”

Since the Biden administration took office, over 7.9 million foreign nationals have illegally crossed the U.S. border with Mexico, according to U.S. Customs and Border Protection data, a figure that only includes those apprehended by law enforcement and not those who successfully sneak in between ports of entry. Many of these foreign nationals can remain in the country after submitting applications for asylum, which can take years to process.

“Jon Tester has worked hand in glove with Joe Biden to aid the invasion taking place at our southern border,” Sheehy wrote in a news release attacking Tester for voting to dismiss impeachment charges against Biden’s Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas. Sheehy has promised to support the construction of a physical wall along the southern border – a longtime policy goal of former President Donald Trump, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee – as well as end federal authorities’ relocation flights to distribute migrants around the country.

Sheehy’s focus on the border reflects a larger strategy for Republican Senate candidates in battleground states across the country, who have emphasized the issue. In April, a campaign arm of the Senate Republican Conference announced it would spend $15 million attacking Tester on immigration this election, according to Politico.

Tester, for his part, has played up the contrast between himself and Biden on this issue.

“I’ve stood up to Biden by demanding action to secure our border and protect Montana’s way of life,” Tester wrote on Twitter, now known as X, on June 9. Tester has also touted his support of a bipartisan border security bill introduced in the Senate in February and, again, in May, which Republicans voted against.

“We had one of the toughest border bills on the Senate floor we’ve ever had and Republicans killed it because they wanted to give my opponent a campaign issue,” Tester tweeted. Addressing his opponent directly, he wrote: “Tim – you didn’t even read the damn bill before you said you opposed it!”

Critics of the Senate bill Tester supports, however, said it would expand and codify the discretionary authority of Biden Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas when it comes to border-related issues. Using such discretionary authority, Mayorkas unilaterally changed laws established by Congress, including creating over a dozen parole programs, which House Republicans said are illegal and cited when they impeached him in February.

This year, Tester joined Republicans in Congress to support conservative immigration legislation – an unusual move for a Senate Democrat. Chief among these is the Laken Riley Act, a bill named for a Georgia graduate student allegedly killed by a foreign national in the country illegally, which passed the House in March and which Tester co-sponsored in the Senate.

Montana is regarded as a heavily conservative state with a Cook Partisan Voting Index (PVI) score of R+11, indicating a Republican lean. However, Tester has won re-election three times to his seat as a Democrat, and is currently the only Democrat holding a state-wide office.

Immigration is a major issue across federal campaigns this year as Democrats seek to blunt the Republican accusation that they are deliberately permitting illegal immigration, with Biden signing an executive order on June 4 that bans those who illegally cross the border from receiving asylum. However, he also issued an order on June 18 that would enable certain illegal immigrants who married U.S. citizens to obtain legal status and, eventually, U.S. citizenship themselves – which Republicans have derided as “amnesty.”

Not to be outdone, Trump last week announced that he would grant permanent residency to any international student graduating from a U.S. college or university. With over 1 million international students presently in the country, according to the Department of State, Trump’s proposal would represent the biggest expansion of legal immigration since the Reagan Administration, when a comprehensive immigration reform bill was last passed by Congress.

Tester and Sheehy did not immediately respond to requests for comment about whether they support Biden’s and Trump’s latest actions, respectively.