State must explain why kids were dropped from medical assistance
HARRISBURG PATRIOT-NEWS Editorial: For nearly a year, some lawmakers, advocates and even welfare department employees have questioned why so many children are being cut from the medical assistance program.
From Aug. 11, 2011, to July 12, 91,430 children lost their Medicaid benefits. Conventional wisdom might say that some of those kids ended up enrolled in the Children’s Health Insurance Program — CHIP — yet those numbers have declined by 387 for that same period…
In a recent letter to the state’s Department of Public Welfare, the federal government wants answers as to why so many people have dropped from the Medicaid rolls in Pennsylvania… (more)
They were dropped because Gov. Corbett tasked the PA DPW with cutting them.
Their method to do so is to send applicants on an impossible paper chase with deadlines that can’t be met or to just lose the paperwork so that the children can be dropped from coverage. The private company handling the CHP program does the same thing.
They send out denial letters, give out a fax number to send the documents to and then disconnect the fax. They make it impossible to follow up the requests.