Annual Renewals and Unwinding

Families can enroll eligible children and teens in Medicaid and Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) year-round, and coverage must be renewed annually even if no personal information has changed. The Connecting Kids to Coverage National Campaign (Campaign) has resources to let families know that Medicaid and CHIP enrollment is always open and that it’s important to renew coverage every year.

Annual Renewal

Unwinding and Returning to Regular Operations after COVID-19

At the start of the COVID-19 Public Health Emergency in March 2020, CMS temporarily waived certain renewal requirements and conditions to help prevent people with Medicaid and CHIP from losing their coverage during the pandemic. However, states are restarting yearly Medicaid and CHIP eligibility reviews and every child on Medicaid or CHIP will need to go through a renewal process between now and April 2024. According to some estimates, up to 15 million people could lose their current Medicaid or CHIP coverage during this process. Now is a critical time to remind families enrolled in Medicaid or CHIP to update their mailing address, phone number, and email with their state Medicaid office so they can receive important renewal information coming by mail. And parents should look for their child’s Medicaid or CHIP renewal in the mail, complete it and mail it back immediately.  

CMS has tools and materials to help encourage beneficiaries to update their contact information so that they can receive important renewal information from their state Medicaid office. These resources, including the Medicaid and CHIP Eligibility Renewals Communications Toolkit and Reaching Children and Families in School-Based and Early Education and Care Settings Toolkit can be found at Medicaid.gov/unwinding. Community groups can also use the Outreach to Families and Children on Medicaid Renewals slide deck and talking points to inform families about what is happening right now with Medicaid and CHIP.

Beneficiaries can visit Medicaid.gov/renewals for more information about Medicaid or CHIP renewal.

The Campaign has a few additional resources to support CMS’ Unwinding efforts:

Facebook/Instagram Images

These images are specifically designed and sized for sharing on Facebook. Download and share them on your account!

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• Facebook Image: “Renewal Letters” in English
• Facebook Image: “Renewal Letters” in Spanish

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• Facebook Image: “Mailbox” in English
• Facebook Image: “Mailbox” in Spanish

Twitter

These images are specifically designed and sized for Twitter. Download and tweet these to your followers on your account and use our #Enroll365 hashtag!

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• Twitter Image: “Renewal Letters” in English
• Twitter Image: “Renewal Letters” in Spanish

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• Twitter Image: “Mailbox” in English
• Twitter Image: “Mailbox” in Spanish

Email Signature Images

• Email Signature Image: "Mailbox" English
• Email Signature Image: "Mailbox" Spanish