State Medicaid programs across the nation are reporting they’ve been locked out of federal payment portals just one day after Trump announced a freeze on federal grants and financial aid.
On Monday, acting director of the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), Matthew Vaeth, issued a memo directing federal agencies to halt “all activities related to obligation or disbursement of all federal financial assistance,” as far as permitted by applicable law. By Tuesday, state Medicaid programs reported they could no longer access the Payment Management System (PMS), a portal used to distribute federal Medicaid funds to the states.
Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) sounded the alarm on social media, writing on X, “My staff has confirmed reports that Medicaid portals are down in all 50 states following last night’s federal funding freeze. This is a blatant attempt to rip away health insurance from millions of Americans overnight and will get people killed.”
NEW: My staff has confirmed reports that Medicaid portals are down in all 50 states following last night’s federal funding freeze. This is a blatant attempt to rip away health insurance from millions of Americans overnight and will get people killed. https://t.co/6cqzQpyOoz
— Ron Wyden (@RonWyden) January 28, 2025
Other lawmakers, including Rep. Maxwell Frost (D-Fla.) and Sen. Brian Schatz (D-Hawaii), also flagged concerns over the portal outages and the potential fallout for state-run Medicaid programs.
When asked about the disruption, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt insisted that Medicaid would not be affected. “This is not a blanket pause on federal assistance in grant programs from the Trump Administration,” Leavitt said, emphasizing that individual benefits such as Social Security, Medicare, and food stamps would remain untouched. However, when pressed for assurances that no Medicaid recipients would face interruptions, Leavitt responded, “I’ll check back on that and get back to you.”
Medicaid and the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) serve nearly 80 million Americans, according to Medicaid.gov, including more than 37 million children as of October 2024.
A spokesperson for the Massachusetts Executive Office of Health and Human Services noted that their state Medicaid program, MassHealth, was experiencing delays and access issues with the federal Payment Management System. However, they could not confirm whether these disruptions were directly tied to the OMB directive. “MassHealth is not halting any payments to providers, plans, or other payees,” they assured.
Legal experts and health policy analysts are closely monitoring the situation, with many warning that even a temporary disruption to Medicaid funding could have serious consequences for states and the millions of Americans who rely on the program for essential health care.
