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The federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services requires that Medicaid applications for the largest group of participants — who are low-income children, families and adults — be processed within 45 days. In February, Missouri took an average of 77 days to process applications.
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The statewide effort to clean up drinking water was prompted by a 2022 Missouri law, and more than $27 million has been set aside to fix the problems.
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USDA Secretary Tom Vilsack sent out a letter to the governors of 44 states — including Missouri and Kansas — that are not meeting federal standards for processing SNAP applications.
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Missouri’s child welfare agency took at least $6.1 million in foster kids’ benefits last year to reimburse itself for the cost of providing care. It’s a longstanding practice that has come under increased scrutiny across the country.
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Missourians trying to enroll in or retain Medicaid — the government-run health insurance program for low-income Americans — are running headlong into the state’s increasingly-strained system. The result: lost and missing paperwork, indecipherable state notices and marathon call center wait times.
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Two Missouri senators have filed legislation that would remove the state's remaining restrictions on providing food benefits to those convicted of felony drug offenses. Missouri's rules comprise "one of the nation’s most stringent bans for receiving SNAP benefits."
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In Missouri, the state’s Children’s Division is responsible for investigating abuse and neglect claims made through the state’s hotline. A bill would make it so the attorney general's office oversees juvenile officers instead.
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A Missouri investigative team has helped locate 628 foster kids this year who were missing from state custody, lawmakers were informed this week.
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A federal lawsuit filed before Medicaid unwinding began alleges that a dysfunctional system prevents low-income Missouri residents from getting food aid. Now, with Missouri reassessing the Medicaid enrollment of more than 1 million recipients, advocates said those systemic flaws have escalated into a crisis for the most vulnerable.
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Beginning in the new year, patients 18 and under who enroll in Missouri's insurance programs for low-income people will not be removed for 12 months. Missouri was one of the few U.S. states that did not offer guaranteed yearlong coverage.
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Kids made up almost half of Missouri residents disenrolled from Medicaid since renewals resumed this year, even though children are eligible for coverage at higher levels than adults. And paperwork issues are the main reason most Missourians are dropped — not lack of eligibility.
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Over a year after a lawsuit alleged that Missouri's "dysfunctional" SNAP call center violates federal law, low-income Missourians are still facing automatic disconnections and wait times of around an hour.