How do you learn whether or not your parent has been approved for Medicaid?

There may be more than one part to your question of how you find out whether your parent has been approved for Medicaid coverage. The first has to do with your parent's privacy. A Medicaid application, and all the information it includes, is confidential. So is Medicaid's decision to approve or disapprove an application. So, unless your parent gives you permission to learn about the status of his or her application, you are not permitted to receive any information about it from Medicaid. If your parent wants to give you such permission, there is an official authorization your parent can sign, which your parent can get from the Medicaid case worker who is processing your parent's application, and which is sometimes available on the Web site of the Medicaid program for the state where your parent has applied (each state has its own, slightly different Medicaid program and forms to go with it).

If and when your parent gives you formal, written permission to learn about the status of his or her Medicaid application, you can contact the case worker who is in charge of the application. When your parent applies for Medicaid benefits, he or she is normally assigned a case worker who is responsible for that particular file. If your parent has not been assigned a particular case worker (some Medicaid programs don't assign a case worker until the application has been approved), the file will be identified by your parents name, date of birth, and Social Security number. The local Medicaid office -- often a county social services office -- where your parent applied for Medicaid coverage will be notified by the state's Medicaid office when your parent's application has been approved or rejected. If the application has been rejected, the local office will provide an explanation of the reasons why benefits have been denied. The process can take several weeks after all the required information has been produced; this can stretch into months if the application was not initially complete and further information needs to be produced. The good news is that coverage can be retroactive to the date the application was filed.