Ramsey County’s Medical Assistance, more commonly known as Medicaid, has a backlog of renewal applications right now, which is affecting health care coverage and basic care for some of the program’s clients who are primarily low-income patients.

Registered home health care nurse Susan Hill told 5 EYEWITNESS NEWS she has five patients who’ve been denied basic care because their Medicaid renewal applications were not processed in a timely manner.

“This is serious. They’re not getting proper medical attention and help, if they need it, because they don’t have insurance,” said Hill. “I have other patients that are, for instance, on seizure medications that cannot get in to see their doctor because they’ve fallen off their insurance.”

Hill told KSTP she has been a home health care nurse for 26 years and this is something she has never experienced. She took her concerns personally to the Ramsey County Department of Human Services.

“When I went there last week myself, I was told there was a three to four-month wait now,” said Hill. “Never seen anything like it.”

A spokesperson for Ramsey County told KSTP there was no one available for an interview.

But, the county issued the following statement and said there were 500 applications that were beyond 60 days in the waiting process.

“There’s been a significant post-pandemic surge throughout Minnesota for economic support programs, and backlogs are being experienced in nearly every county in the metro area. This includes backlogs in the processing of medical assistance applications and renewals, where wait times throughout the state have exceeded 30 days. This challenge is amplified in Ramsey County, where more than a third of residents now receive medical assistance and new applications have been rising every year. In 2023, there were 197,896 residents who received medical assistance at least one month of that year, which is approximately 37% of the county’s estimated population of 552,350 (according to the U.S. Census American Community Survey). The number of people receiving medical assistance through the county has also increased by more than 20,000 in just five years (174,195 in 2019).

We have implemented several strategies to address these delays and improve processing times. There are currently 97 staff dedicated to processing medical assistance applications and renewals. Joining them are staff who usually handle medical assistance alongside other programs. We’ve brought on temporary part-time financial workers from other counties to help us, and county financial workers are working overtime to help reduce the backlog. Next month we will be onboarding 38 new staff to enhance our overall operational capacity. Hirings are done in training cohorts, which is why you didn’t see these jobs currently posted. Hiring for the next cohort begins in January 2025.

In general, there’s always a waiting period when applying for benefits. We strive to process medical assistance renewals within a 45-day to 60-day timeframe. Because of the growing number of these requests and renewals, the current wait time has exceeded that. Sometimes there are also delays because the resident might not have provided all the information we need. However, once approved, all medical assistance applications and reinstated renewals may qualify for up to 90 days of retroactive coverage. We expect the new cohort of employees who start next month and the other steps we are taking will have approvals to be done within 60 days.”

The county spokesperson said applicants will also be eligible for reimbursement of their own expenses for up to 90 days after they had been denied coverage.