Case Study: Effective State
Medicaid Eligibility Simplification Strategies
Massachusetts' MassHealth Program
The MassHealth Program utilized a combination of efforts to increase awareness and
simplify the application and eligibility process in order to overcome two critical
challenges:
- Working parents’ lack of knowledge of the program’s availability.
- Parents’ perception of the program as being available only for welfare recipients.
MassHealth addressed these issues through a multi-modal, multi-layer outreach approach
that was successful in generating a 28 percent increase in new enrollees within a
12-month period.
Elements of the Strategy to Simplify Eligibility
- Use of one income level for the whole family.
- Utilization of gross, not net, income.
- Elimination of asset standard.
- Reduction of verifications (no birth certificates;
immigration unnecessary for limited coverage; two instead of four pay stubs requested).
- Shortened application form.
- Automated Eligibility System (determines eligibility in 3 days vs. 3 weeks) which always
gives maximum program available to recipient during initial eligibility or redetermination.
MassHealth Simplified the Application Process
- Mail-in applications.
- Outstationed workers.
- An 800 number for information dissemination
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Outrch./Enroll. 
