AHS readies staff and efficiencies for Medicaid're-enrollment; community outreach not yet funded
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Summary
Agency of Human Services said it will add 12 permanent enrollment positions to handle a switch to six-month Medicaid re-enrollments and cited technology upgrades but has not budgeted new direct funding for community providers that will face extra outreach burdens; AHS also proposed reducing VPCH beds to align capacity with utilization.
Agency of Human Services officials told the Appropriations Committee they expect operational strain from federal- and state-level changes that require more frequent Medicaid re-enrollments for a subset of the population and outlined immediate steps the agency will take.
AHS said it is adding 12 permanent classified enrollment and eligibility staff to handle biannual re-determinations required under recent Medicaid rule changes. The secretary said these positions will perform enrollment work and interact with Vermonters to complete the redetermination process. "These are enrollment staff that are gonna be needed to actually do the enrollment for those individuals," she said.
Committee members pressed AHS about outreach funding for community partners (community action agencies, designated agencies, area agencies on aging, child centers, legal aid) that provide day-to-day assistance to clients who will need to reapply more frequently. AHS said it has not budgeted additional direct funding to community partners and instead plans to coordinate outreach and communications, leveraging lessons and some technology upgrades obtained through federal measures in recent reconciliation and HR plans.
AHS emphasized that not all Medicaid populations are subject to biannual reenrollment; the change primarily affects certain new-adult groups and medical-service subsets rather than SSI-based or disability-based enrollees who are generally carved out. The agency said it based staffing and projections on data from the unwinding process and expects to rely on a combination of internal enrollment staff, community outreach coordination and technology supports.
Separately, AHS said it will reduce Vermont Psychiatric Care Hospital (VPCH) beds from 25 to 21 to align capacity with utilization and staffing realities; the agency said metrics such as waiting in hospitals and discharge timeliness have not worsened and that the change reflects actual use. AHS acknowledged the reduction will eliminate positions and said it will provide a full list of affected roles.
AHS also described program-level underutilization in adult day health services driven by lingering post-pandemic attendance declines and transportation and marketing barriers; the agency characterized those adjustments as realigning budgets to actual utilization rather than denying services to Vermonters.
Next steps include departmental follow-ups (e.g., DCF, DVHA) with more detailed budget testimony, and committee members said they will review supplementary materials AHS provided online.
