Tracking Medicaid Coverage Post the Continuous Coverage Requirement: Using Data Dashboards to Monitor Trends
The Families First Coronavirus Response Act (FFCRA) Medicaid “continuous coverage” requirement has allowed people to retain Medicaid coverage and get needed care during the COVID-19 pandemic. When continuous enrollment is discontinued, states will restart eligibility redeterminations, and millions of Medicaid enrollees will be at risk of losing their coverage. The current lack of publicly available and timely Medicaid enrollment, renewal, and disenrollment data will make it difficult to understand exactly who is losing coverage and for what reasons. One effective way to monitor this type of information is through the use of Medicaid enrollment and retention dashboards. This issue brief examines the current status of data collection to assess Medicaid enrollment and retention, summarizes potential forthcoming reporting requirements, and describes some of the best practices states should consider when developing a data dashboard to display this type of information. The issue brief lays out a phased set of priority measures and provides a model enrollment and retention dashboard template.