6 new counties added to Group Health Cooperative service area

Group Health Cooperative of South Central Wisconsin (GHC-SCW) has expanded its Medicaid service area to include the following six counties: Sauk, Columbia, Jefferson, Iowa, Grant, and Lafayette.

Previously, GHC-SCW served Medicaid enrollees exclusively in Dane County.

GHC Medicaid enrollees in the seven counties can receive care with any regional GHC network provider within the expanded service area. Enrollees can locate eligible clinics and providers in the GHC-SCW Online Provider Directory.

Medicaid eligibility expanded significantly under the COVID-19 national public health emergency (PHE). According to data published by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), Wisconsin’s Medicaid population grew by nearly 33% from February 2020 to September 2022.

As part of the Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2023, the Biden administration recently announced that the PHE would end on May 11, 2023, which includes the end of the continuous enrollment provision for Medicaid enrollees. GHC-SCW joins the Wisconsin Department of Health Services (DHS) in outreach to Medicaid enrollees to instruct them on any appropriate steps to maintain or change coverage once the public health emergency ends.