AUSTIN, Texas — Congressman Lloyd Doggett's office received a whistleblower report from Texas Health and Human Services Commission that exposed system glitches and errors resulting in coverage loss for thousands of Texans.
Doggett's office provided KVUE with a copy of an email from whistleblower staff members who say they were tasked with processing close to 6 million Medicaid recipients within a tight eight-month time frame. But they said they received numerous emails from agency leadership indicating thousands of people had been denied coverage.
Despite multiple inquiries, Doggett's staff claims the reasons for these denials were not adequately explained by leadership from the agency. The email said staff were informed of approximately 80,000 people losing coverage erroneously, including several thousand pregnant women who needed critical services during their pregnancies and afterwards.
One of the issues included a coding error that placed kids in the wrong coverage group, causing the state to miss out on $100 million in federal funding. Doggett is calling on officials to pause the state redetermination process until a complete investigation is done.
"What I would really like to see at the state level is there are an estimated [300,000] to 400,000 Texas children that are eligible for Medicaid today to get access to a family physician who are not in the program. We should be adding more people, not denying coverage to people because the State has not been doing its job. I'm urging the federal authorities to investigate this thoroughly," Doggett said.
KVUE also reached out to Texas Health and Human Services Commission for a response. A press officer for the Texas Health and Human Services Commission, provided the following statement:
"Redetermining Medicaid eligibility for approximately 6 million Texans over 12 months is a massive undertaking, and HHSC has planned this unwinding effort for more than a year. We are working closely with Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services and our partners to ensure that the redetermination process operates as smoothly as possible. Through our quality assurance process, we’ve identified and are resolving technical issues. We are aware of some Medicaid cases that were denied improperly, and we've reinstated coverage for those individuals."