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Another 11,500 people removed from Louisiana Medicaid rolls

Another 11,500 people removed from Louisiana Medicaid rolls
Posted at 3:23 PM, Jul 01, 2019
and last updated 2019-07-01 17:28:00-04

BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) - Nearly 11,500 people were kicked out of Louisiana's Medicaid program at the end of June because they didn't prove they qualified for the government health insurance coverage.

Health department spokeswoman Kelly Zimmerman confirmed the removals Monday. They were the second round of people booted from Medicaid under new quarterly wage checks that started this year.

About 17,000 Medicaid enrollees received notices in May, flagged by a new computer check that determined they earned too much for the program. The letters advised recipients they needed to prove their eligibility for the taxpayer-financed insurance or coverage ended June 30.

The new computer system does quarterly, rather than annual, eligibility checks and uses more wage data for comparison. More than 30,000 Medicaid recipients lost benefits at March's end in the first quarterly check.