“No More” Backlog of Medicaid Applications

Missouri officials said on Wednesday that the backlog of Medicaid applications is ‘no more’ and that applications are now being processed within the federally-mandated timeline of 45 days. The federal government had set up a mitigation plan with Missouri giving them until September 30 to come into compliance. The Department of Social Services noted that there are applications older than 45 days, but those are still waiting on applicants to provide information.

Last month, the average time to process an application was between 85 to 90 days, compared to an average of 106 days in July. A quarterly report issued recently by the federal government showed that roughly four in every five Medicaid applications in Missouri took longer than 45 days to process. Officials said staff shortages are still a problem in keeping with the 45-day application time. On average, 30 employees are leaving each month.