Updates to Georgia Medicaid Policy due to COVID-19

Updates to Georgia Medicaid Policy due to the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19)

Due to COVID-19, the Georgia Department of Community Health has implemented some temporary changes to Medicaid policy. The temporary changes are effective from March 1, 2020 until June 30, 2020, unless extended.  These changes should help families and facilities in these challenging times

The four principal changes to Medicaid policy are as follows:

1. Self-Attestation – Documentation may not be available due to the disaster, as such, DFCS is supposed to accept what the applicant says, if actual documentation is not available. This applies to everything except the citizenship/immigration status.
2. The statute of promptness – The 45 days required for processing an application or renewal is effectively eliminated during the time of the emergency. This also means that we cannot ask for a hearing due to lack of timeliness prior to June 30.
3. Renewal Certification – There has been an extension of time in which to complete the Medicaid renewal process. This means that people will still be Medicaid eligible even if they do not complete their renewal in a timely manner during the emergency period, but so far this only applies to renewals scheduled for the months of March and April.
4. Qualified Income Trusts – There is a temporary easing on the requirement for using a Qualified Income Trust “QIT” for new Medicaid applications. Generally, Medicaid applicants with gross income greater than $2,349.00 per month are required to use a QIT. This relaxes the rule for having to use a QIT for new applicants in March, April, May and June. This does not relieve the applicant from having to make a patient liability payment to the facility. After the end of the emergency period, a QIT will have to be in place and be properly funded and used on a monthly basis.

if you are concerned how these temporary changes impact you, please contact us at 404-843-0121 or via email here with your questions

All of these exceptions seem to be well thought out and are much appreciated under the current circumstances. I would like to thank my friend and colleague Dan Munster for forwarding the DCH memo to me.