Lengthy call center wait times are hurting people’s attempts to renew Medicaid coverage before being disenrolled. The federal government has issued warnings to states that this situation is unacceptable.

According to the Associated Press, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services sent letters to 16 states — Alaska, Arizona, Florida, Hawaii, Idaho, Illinois, Kansas, Maine, Missouri, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, Oregon, Rhode Island, South Carolina and Utah — raising concerns about high abandonment rates from residents who are not willing to wait on the line.

“Among those 16 states, the average call center wait time was 25 minutes and the average hang-up rate was 29%,” the AP reported. “That’s significantly higher than the rest of the states, where the average call wait was less than 3 minutes and the average hang-up rate was less than 6%.”

“Some advocates have offered to function like placeholders in a long line for concert or sports tickets — waiting on hold so Medicaid recipients can do other things,” the media outlet added. 

Another concern is the additional wait time experienced by non-English-speaking callers. Data from UnidosUS Hispanic civil rights advocacy organization showed that the average Spanish-language caller in the state of Florida had to wait almosy two and a half hours for their call to be answered. That’s four times the wait experienced by the average English-language caller.

Almost one third (30%) of all Spanish-language calls were disconnected before the caller reached a representative, compared with 10% of English-language calls, according to the advocacy group.

As McKnight’s Home Care previously reported, the Medicaid unwinding, which began April 1, has affected an estimated 76,630 older adults and people with disabilities in 22 states. This amount equates to approximately 5% of total disenrollments in those states, according to a recent analysis by Damon Terzaghi, director of Medicaid home- and community-based services for the National Association for Home Care & Hospice. The unwinding, a result of the end of COVID-19 eligibility requirements, has resulted in many states dropping Medicaid beneficiaries from their rolls, in large part due to procedural reasons.