Wisconsin Medicaid Operating As Usual

Recent federal policy actions have raised a lot of questions about their potential impact on state benefits. Please know that, at this time, Wisconsin's FoodShare, BadgerCare Plus, and other Medicaid programs are operating and serving members across Wisconsin. We continue to serve the Wisconsinites who rely on these benefits for health care and food help.

What happened?

A federal memo issued on January 27 instructed federal agencies to pause sending out federal funds supporting many federal programs. This prompted confusion as to which programs were or were not impacted. While the January 27 memo has been rescinded at this time, the White House has made comments indicating that the funding freeze itself has not been rescinded. The effort to pause federal funding is the subject of active and ongoing litigation. Nevertheless, these events caused concern and questions.

What does this mean for members of these programs?

To be clear: Wisconsin’s Medicaid and FoodShare programs continue to serve the Wisconsinites who rely on them for health care and food benefits. They should continue to get the health care and services they need. This includes prescriptions, doctor’s visits, ongoing treatments, and other benefits.

They can use the FoodShare benefits available on their QUEST cards. February FoodShare benefits are scheduled to go on cards as usual.

What does this mean for entities that work with Wisconsin Medicaid to serve members, like health care providers, managed care organizations, county agencies and others?

We do not believe there is any impact at this time.

They should continue to provide services to members in BadgerCare Plus and Wisconsin Medicaid programs.

Health care providers can check member eligibility, get policy information, and submit claims for payment as usual through our ForwardHealth portal.

Wisconsin’s Medicaid program will continue to make payments to providers, managed care organizations, and other agencies and entities that work with us to serve our members.

Stay informed

Wisconsin will continue to monitor developments at the federal level to understand the impacts on our state’s benefit programs. We will share information on our member news pages. Go to dhs.wi.gov/medicaidnews for Medicaid news and dhs.wi.gov/fsnews for FoodShare news.

Source: The Wisconsin Department of Health Services (DHS) issued this bulletin on Friday, Jan. 31.