The Perils of Medicaid “Redets” – Part 1

A few weeks ago in this blog, I posted about possible changes to Medicaid that may be coming from Washington.  There are other changes, however, that have been happening here in New Jersey at the county and state level with respect to applications that we are now filing, but also with clients for whom we already successfully obtained Medicaid benefits several years ago.

In the past 3 months we have received calls from 5 clients who told me that their loved ones’ Medicaid benefits had been terminated.  The reasons were varied but it does highlight a disturbing trend.  Before I get to the details of some of those cases let me first explain what happens after Medicaid is approved.

As I always tell clients, Medicaid does annual redeterminations once you are approved.  While these annual reviews were always part of the regulations as far back as I can remember, when I first starting filing Medicaid applications 30 years ago, “redets” as they are commonly referred to, were rare.  Some counties did them others did not.  Even counties that did them did so sporadically and. not annually.

Within the last 10 years and especially since COVID, however, we have now seen them in all the counties we file in and “like clockwork” they are done each year.  The redet process is much simpler than the application process.  5 years of records and the scrutiny that goes along with it is not part of the redet process.  The State is basically looking for updated asset and income numbers and any changes in status.

Sounds simple but it is still easy to get tripped up and lose benefits.  I’ll explain more next week.