Medicaid customers now have 75 days to submit their renewal applications, ensuring uninterrupted health care benefits.
SANTA FE – The New Mexico Human Services Department (HSD) today announced the agency is providing an additional 30 days for Medicaid customers to submit their renewal applications.
Beginning with those who were due to renew their health care coverage in September 2023, Medicaid customers have an extra month — after their renewal due date — to submit their necessary documents for Medicaid renewals.
“We are extending the time for our Medicaid customers to submit the necessary documents for renewals, granting them a total of 75 days instead of 45 days to complete their renewal applications.” said Kari Armijo, acting cabinet secretary for the New Mexico Human Services Department. “During this extension period, their Medicaid will remain open, ensuring continued access to care — and allowing us time to do additional outreach and reminders about Medicaid renewals.”
The additional time flexibility was requested by HSD from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) with the goal of ensuring the 934,305 New Mexicans enrolled in the state’s Medicaid program have a longer period to complete and submit their renewal application.
HSD also requested and was granted CMS approval for a flexibility to allow New Mexicans whose income is at or below 100% of the Federal Poverty Level (FPL) to automatically renew their Medicaid coverage for 12 months without requesting additional information or documentation.
The agency is also seeking CMS approval for an additional strategy to mitigate loss of coverage at renewal for children ages 0 to 6.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, the state’s Medicaid customers did not need to provide renewal information to maintain their health care coverage. With the end of pandemic-era policies, the federal government required states to resume eligibility verifications for anyone enrolled in Medicaid. This process called the Medicaid Unwinding must be completed within a period of 12 months, which began April 1, 2023, and extends through March 2024.
To reach all Medicaid customers across the state, HSD is conducting an extensive outreach and statewide multimedia, multilingual public awareness campaign called “Renew NM: It’s time to Renew NM.”
The agency is urging Medicaid customers to update their contact information with HSD to be able to reach them when it’s time for them to renew their coverage.
Medicaid customers can update their contact information by:
If a Medicaid customer’s coverage is terminated for not renewing, they have a 90-day reconsideration period, which allows them to reenroll and return to coverage. If they are still eligible for Medicaid, their coverage will be reinstated back to the month they were disenrolled, leading to no gap in coverage. Customers who miss their 90-day reconsideration period can reapply for coverage at any time.
To learn more about how and when to renew Medicaid, please visit https://renew.hsd.nm.gov
We talk, interpret and smile in all languages. We provide written information to our customers in both English and Spanish and interpretation services are available in 58 languages through our provider, CTS Language Link. For our hearing, and speech impaired customers, we utilize Relay New Mexico, a free 24-hour service that ensures equal communication access via the telephone to individuals who are deaf, hard of hearing, deaf-blind or speech disabled.
The Human Services Department provides services and benefits to 1,018,012 New Mexicans through several programs including: the Medicaid Program, Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) Program, Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), Child Support Program, and several Behavioral Health Services.
