Medicaid notices are vital tools for members of the public to properly access life-saving benefits. They can also be dense and confusing, which can lead to missed deadlines, incomplete or inaccurate responses, and avoidable loss of coverage. The 2025 passage of H.R. 1 made changes to the Medicaid program that will further increase program complexity and administrative burdens on both enrollees and caseworkers. Beginning January 1, 2027, H.R. 1 will require states to confirm eligibility every six months for adults enrolled through the Affordable Care Act expansion and introduce new work requirements for certain enrollees. As renewal volume grows and new requirements are rolled out, states must ensure their notices communicate to enrollees clearly what they need to do and by when.

As part of Code for America’s initiative to provide Medicaid support to the State of Maryland, PPL is redesigning a set of priority Medicaid notices for the Maryland Health Benefit Exchange (MHBE) and the Maryland Department of Health (MDH). Through research and codesign with Maryland Medicaid enrollees and staff, we will deliver plain-language, compliant notices. These redesigned notices will not only help enrollees maintain their coverage, but will also reduce administrative burden on the agencies, with production-ready notices completed in spring 2027. Our work runs alongside two connected workstreams: caseworker workflow improvements led by Code for America and application redesign led by Civilla.