Maryland Managed Care Organization Association Medicaid Redetermination Campaign
The COVID-19 pandemic created confusion in every facet of daily life. In early 2023, as restrictions were beginning to lift and life continued its return to normal, the Maryland Managed Care Organization Association (MMCOA) wanted to bring clarity to a crucial area for a lot of people: what they needed to do to keep their Medicaid health insurance.
Medicaid had paused coverage eligibility reviews during the height of the pandemic. But starting in April, Medicaid enrollees across the state would no longer be automatically enrolled. They would once again need to renew their health insurance every 12 months.
MMCOA’s “Redetermination” campaign was created to make sure those who needed to renew their insurance would know how, when and where to do so.
With friendly, clear messaging, we spoke directly to our audience to tell them what they needed to do: update their contact info so that when it was their turn to renew their coverage, they could receive their notice to do so. With only a 45-day window to complete the process once they’d been alerted, time was a factor, and we urged enrollees not to hesitate when it was their turn to renew.
We utilized the “check-in” language as a warm and simple way to express our message and to take action: “Check in. Check your mail. Check with us.”
GKV partnered with the MMCOA and Maryland Department of Health (MDH) to produce a full tool kit of materials for the nine managed care organizations (MCOs), the Maryland Health Benefit Exchange and our community-based partners to generate awareness. We wanted the messaging to be anywhere our audience would be. Whether they’d changed addresses, were still waiting for their notice, or had already received it, we could reach them through videos, radio, a landing page, digital ads, email outreach, billboards, transit cars, bus shelters, waiting room flyers and more, in English, Spanish, Haitian Creole, Mandarin and Vietnamese.
The Results
The campaign is off to a great start, keeping Medicaid enrollees across Maryland informed of what they need to do to keep their health insurance, and providing some clarity on important issues in a confusing time. According to a December 2023 study published by Kaiser Family Foundation (KFF), Maryland has the 5th highest renewal rate in the country.
