How Do You Renew Medicaid Online?

Renew Medicaid coverage online by visiting Medicaid.gov and choosing the state in which you live, which allows you to view renewal requirements and application instructions. State profiles on Medicaid.gov provide details such as eligibility levels, enrollment reports, applications and the Children’s Health Insurance Program, commonly referred to as CHIP.

As of 2015, some states offer automatic Medicaid renewals as stipulated by the Affordable Care Act, according to the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation. States offering automatic renewal only need to collect updated household data annually from Medicaid recipients to give them continuous health insurance coverage. Other states have partially implemented auto-renewal or still require an online or mailed renewal application.

One challenge in applying the ACA rules universally to those insured by Medicaid is that there are a large number of managed care plans under the umbrella of federal health insurance, says the Kaiser Foundation. Thus, it is useful for the insured person to communicate with the private company that offers the specific Medicaid plan to determine if online renewal is possible. It is also important to look up the detailed Medicaid renewal requirements in a given state to verify that there is no gap in coverage while a renewal application is pending.

State-based and varied renewal guidelines also apply to the Children’s Health Insurance Program, a division of Medicaid.