More than 270,000 Healthy Michigan Plan recipients may be at risk of losing their coverage once new work requirements go into effect in January – that’s according to the latest numbers from the state.

The Michigan Department of Health and Human Services (MDHHS) recently announced it is notifying the recipients who currently are not exempt from work requirements, to alert them they’re at risk of losing their coverage.

“These letters are an important step in MDHHS’s multifaceted plan to give Healthy Michigan Plan beneficiaries clear information about what they need to do to continue their coverage,” Robert Gordon, director of MDHHS said in a press release.

The letter notifies recipients that beginning January 1 they will be required to report 80 hours of work or other eligible activities, such as job training, each month to MDHHS to retain their coverage.

The Healthy Michigan Plan, available through the Medicaid expansion under the Affordable Care Act (ACA), provides coverage to more than 650,000 people with incomes at or below 133 percent of the federal poverty level. View the number of recipients in your county.

According to research from the University of Michigan, the Healthy Michigan Plan has:

• More than doubled primary care usage.

• Reduced recipients’ reliance on emergency rooms by 58 percent.

• Reduced uncompensated care by nearly 50 percent.

• Added $2.3 billion to the state’s economy.

In December, the Legislature’s plan to implement work requirements for the Healthy Michigan Plan was approved by the federal government.

Michigan is one of 16 states where work requirements are in the works or involved in legal challenges. Indiana is the only state where work requirements are currently being implemented according to the Kaiser Family Foundation. Across the country court cases have surfaced, including in Arkansas where a federal judge halted the program after 18,000 recipients lost their coverage. 

Over the summer the New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM) published an analysis of the work requirement mandate in Arkansas.

Highlights of NEJM’s findings include:

• In the first 6 months of the work requirements there was a significant loss of Medicaid coverage and a rise in uninsured individuals.

• There were no significant changes in employment associated with the policy. More than 95 percent of individuals who were targeted by the policy already met the requirement or should have been exempt.

• Many Medicaid recipients said they were unaware of the policy or confused about how to report their status to the state.

In Michigan, the state is working to avoid such issues. For instance, last week the House passed Senate Bill 362 to increase the time individuals have to verify their work status. If a recipient fails to meet the monthly reporting deadline, they now have 60 days to verify their work status. The bill also provides for some individuals who qualify for and are receiving other state supports to automatically have their work status verified. 

Meanwhile, MDHHS has more communications and outreach planned to alert those at risk of losing their coverage, explaining how they can share their status with the state or fill out a form for an exemption.

The Michigan League for Public Policy (MLPP) which has spoken out against implementing work requirements recently thanked MDHHS on social media for its proactive efforts to try and minimize loss of coverage among recipients.