Emergency food ends, and many families need to renew Medi-Cal benefits in Stanislaus area
Federal government benefit programs to help families with health and economic hardships during the COVID pandemic have ended, and that means changes for many Medi-Cal recipients and families who received emergency food assistance in Stanislaus County.
As COVID-19 raged, eligible families were covered by Medi-Cal without needing to comply with a standard renewal process. Almost 44,000 households in Stanislaus County received extra CalFresh assistance to put food on the table.
Those benefits were eliminated by the Consolidated Appropriations Act signed by President Joe Biden in December.
Starting April 1, the state and federal Medi-Cal program returned to normal procedures, including an annual process to determine if program participants still are eligible for the free or low-cost health coverage.
According to a staff report to Stanislaus County supervisors Tuesday, many households in the county will meet requirements for automatic renewal of Medi-Cal benefits for another year. But others do not qualify for automatic renewal and are getting renewal packets in the mail.
Those families and adults are faced with being dropped from Medi-Cal if they do not complete the eligibility process or it’s determined they no longer are eligible. Some may get insurance through Covered California or their employer.
The Medi-Cal process begins in April for those coming up for renewal in June and will continue in that manner each month.
In Stanislaus County, about 269,445 residents are receiving Medi-Cal benefits, or about half the county population. County staff said 35% of the 118,556 households in the Medi-Cal program are automatically renewed, leaving just over 77,000 that need to jump through the renewal hoops.
The county is expecting up to 6,400 renewals every month. An estimated 1,300 to 2,250 households each month may lose benefits because they have moved or don’t return the packets requesting information.
The county is retraining staff to review Medi-Cal eligibility and process renewals. It is hiring part-time help for the transition.
Emergency food cut off
During the pandemic, the federal government gave extra emergency food assistance of at least $95 monthly to eligible families, which amounted to an additional $8.5 million in emergency assistance to residents in Stanislaus County.
The final allotments were given in March. CalFresh assistance is now returning to regular amounts, reducing monthly food budgets by $200 per household or $107 per individual, the county report said. About 44,000 households are affected.
The state has been notifying affected families since January though text messages, automated calls and mailers. People with questions may call a toll-free number, 888-445-1955. A website providing the locations of local food banks is at www.cafoodbanks.org/find-food.
This story was originally published April 4, 2023 at 1:20 PM with the headline "Emergency food ends, and many families need to renew Medi-Cal benefits in Stanislaus area."
