According to a clarifying memo released by Donald Trump’s budget office Tuesday morning, a previous memo ordering all federal agencies to freeze federal grants and loans will supposedly not affect mandatory programs like Medicaid. At the same time as the second memo was circulating, howevver, officials were reporting that Medicaid portals had in fact shut down in all 50 states.
Anyone trying to log into the Payment Management Services (PMS) web portal, the online system responsible for tracking and depositing federal health department funds, will be greeted by a notice saying that, due to “Executive Orders regarding potentially unallowable grant payments, PMS is taking additional measures to process payments. Reviews of applicable programs and payments will result in delays and/or rejections of payments.”
Reports of shuttered Medicaid portals began Tuesday morning, with Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Oregon, writing by the early afternoon that his staff “had 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,” he wrote in a social media post early Tuesday afternoon. “This is a blatant attempt to rip away health insurance from millions of Americans overnight and will get people killed.”
Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn., said that providers in his state are not getting paid due to the Medicaid payment system being turned off, and that “discussions (were) ongoing about whether services can continue.” In Illinois, where 4 million low-income people had their health care covered in 2023 by Medicaid, state agencies reported issues to Gov. JB Pritzker’s office with accessing a number of federal funding sites, including Medicaid portals. According to his office, Pritzker is communicating with federal and state officials, as well as other governors, about the matter.
“The governor has directed his senior team to assess the detrimental impacts of this unlawful action on the state’s budget and services,” Pritzker spokesperson Matt Hill told the Chicago Sun-Times.
An array of organizations and agencies that receive federal health funds, including Head Start early childhood education programs and community health centers, also reported being locked out.
The apparent shutdown of Medicaid has heightened fears that the federal freeze ordered by Trump’s budget office will curtail essential aid to low-income Americans. Legal challenges are already underway, with several Democratic state attorneys general announcing Tuesday afternoon that they will sue the Trump administration over the budget memo and seek a restraining order to block its implementation.
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