The Department of Human Services is preparing for the eventual end of the Public Health Emergency. Under the federal COVID-19 Public Health Emergency (PHE) declaration, Pennsylvania has continued Medical Assistance (MA) coverage for most people unless they moved out-of-state, passed away, or asked to end their MA. When the federal PHE ends, the Department of Human Services (DHS) must determine if people are still eligible for MA. MA recipients will have to complete a renewal to maintain their MA coverage.  

DHS and our partners at Pennie® (Pennsylvania's official health insurance marketplace) are working hard to make sure that Pennsylvanians can get coverage either through MA, the Children's Health Insurance Program (CHIP), or affordable coverage available through pennie.com.   

We are seeking trusted partners to assist us in this PHE unwinding process through your means of connection to individuals that will need to renew MA benefits.  Today we are launching an email newsletter called the DHS Helper Portal (link below).  We will use this to send regular communications on the status of the PHE and how to help individuals to stay covered after the requirement to keep MA open ends.  Please share this link with your listservs and partners to ensure our network of DHS helpers is vast, educated, engaged, and consistent in their efforts to keep PA covered.    

Sign up to become a helper today at Helpers (pa.gov)!     

• Fill out the simple online form 

• The form will generate an email to the email address given.  

• Confirm the address by walking through the prompts in the email. 

• Congratulations!  You are a helper! 

Thank you for your assistance in helping those impacted by the PHE unwinding process.  

- Pennie and PA DHS