Dive Brief:
- Medical billing tech firm Cedar launched a tool Monday that aims to help patients enroll in and maintain Medicaid coverage as the healthcare sector braces for major cuts to the safety-net insurance program.
- The product, called Cedar Cover, identifies patients who may be eligible for Medicaid, reminds beneficiaries of upcoming eligibility checks, helps them manage care denials and connects them to medication co-pay assistance, the company announced at the HLTH 2025 conference in Las Vegas.
- The tool comes months after President Donald Trump signed a massive tax and policy law that includes historic cuts to Medicaid. “This bill is going to directly drive increases in uninsured patient care,” Seth Cohen, president of Cedar, said at HLTH.
Dive Insight:
The One Big Beautiful Bill Act strips more than $1 trillion from federal healthcare spending over the next decade, largely through cuts to Medicaid.
One of the largest changes included in the law are work requirements, which mandate Medicaid beneficiaries log work, education or volunteer hours to stay enrolled in coverage.
The requirements are controversial: While Republicans argue the policy preserves the safety-net program for the most needy, studies show previous experiments by states to enact work mandates removed people from coverage without increasing employment. Eligible people could also be removed because they struggle to navigate the reporting process, opponents say.
An additional 10 million people will be uninsured in 2034 due to the law, according to the Congressional Budget Office. That poses new financial challenges for providers, who will likely lose revenue and see uncompensated care costs spike.
“This is hugely devastating for providers who no longer have the [...] reimbursement, and, of course, for the patients who cannot cover these losses,” Cohen said.
Cedar Cover aims to help patients through the Medicaid enrollment process and alert current beneficiaries of upcoming work requirement and eligibility check deadlines.
Patients complete an eligibility screen to determine whether they could qualify for assistance, and the tool walks them through enrollment if they appear eligible, a spokesperson told Healthcare Dive.
Once they’re enrolled in the safety-net program, Cedar uses the approval date to send reminders about work requirements and renewal dates using state-specific data from partner Fortuna Health, a Medicaid navigation platform.
The product can also guide patients on how to resolve claims denials and pair them with medication assistance. In conjunction with Cedar’s payments platform, the financial assistance tool integrates with major electronic health records, like Epic, a spokesperson said.
Nearly a dozen health systems use Cedar Cover, including Novant Health, Baystate Health and the Iowa Clinic, according to a press release.
