Apparently, a mistake was made within the state’s Medicare Savings Program, which led to the erroneous removal of 350 Texas seniors. These seniors missed out on the money they were owed by the program for months and even paid more out of pocket for their medications before the error was detected. 

Deputy chief press officer Tiffany Young explained, “HHSC routinely performs quality assurance measures. When, through this process, the agency discovers a Medicaid recipient was terminated in error, HHSC works expeditiously to reinstate coverage for those impacted back to the date of their termination.”

However, the problem occurred when, at the end of the crisis, the HHSC assessed the nearly 6 million Texans receiving Medicaid and accidentally removed nearly 100,000 seniors who were rightfully covered. 

But now, less than two years later, it has happened again. This time, they can’t blame the pandemic; it is simply an error in the program or in the department itself. And Texas seniors are extremely, and rightly, frustrated. 

The first issue is that these 100,000 Texans, and now another 350, received less money in their Social Security checks for every month that they were not listed in the state’s Medicaid program. 

That includes a $174 monthly Part B Premium, which these thousands of seniors lost out on when they were incorrectly removed from the program. Losing out on almost $200 every month would be challenging for most Americans, but it’s especially difficult for seniors without another form of income. 

Many of the people affected likely didn’t look at their finances every month or even didn’t have the capacity to fully understand how much they were supposed to be getting every month. Therefore, the majority didn’t recognize that they were getting less. 

Because everything in the United States, including prescriptions, is constantly increasing in price, it’s likely that most of the senior citizens didn’t even realize they were being overcharged and simply agreed to the higher price point. 

In fact, it could take several months for the mistake to be fully rectified. In the meantime, these seniors will continue to live without their rightful Social Security checks and discounted medications. 

Fong explained, “Losing the Medicare Savings Program has a very significant financial impact on seniors,” and “a lot of seniors were incorrectly removed from their Medicare Savings Program in many states.”

Fong said, “These individuals are put into a very hard financial situation while waiting for it to be corrected, which can take several months or more.”

First and foremost, to find out if you or they have accidentally been removed, and second, to ask when they expect that the error will be rectified. If they don’t have an answer for you, Fong recommends continuing to reach out until they do.