Connecticut Medicaid Renewal and Recertification (2026)

A missed renewal can end your Connecticut Medicaid (HUSKY Health) coverage even if you still qualify. Federal law requires the state to try to renew you automatically from data it already holds before it asks you for anything, but when a renewal packet does reach you, it has to come back on time. This guide explains how the Connecticut Medicaid renewal and recertification cycle works, what to do when your packet arrives, and the 90-day window to recover if you miss the deadline.

Renew online at ConneCT (connect.ct.gov) or call DSS at 1-855-626-6632.

In This Guide

• The Connecticut Medicaid Renewal Cycle
• Ex Parte Renewal: The Automatic First Step
• How to Renew HUSKY Health
• The 90-Day Reconsideration Window
• Children Keep Coverage for 12 Months
• Long-Term Care and CHCPE Renewals
• Medicare Savings Program Renewals
• If Your Mail Is Returned
• Appeals and Fair Hearings
• What Changes After 2026
• Common Mistakes
• Frequently Asked Questions
• Learn More

Eligibility for Medicaid is set once at application, but under the federal renewal rules at 42 CFR 435.916 it is redetermined every 12 months after that.1 In Connecticut the program is administered by the Department of Social Services (DSS) and branded HUSKY Health. A renewal that closes for procedural reasons usually means the person still qualified but missed the packet, which is what the 90-day window below fixes.

The Connecticut Medicaid Renewal Cycle

Under the federal renewal rules at 42 CFR 435.916, DSS redetermines eligibility for most enrollees at least once every 12 months, and 12 months is the standard cycle for everyone outside the expansion-adult change described below.1 Your renewal month is fixed when you are first approved and recurs in the same calendar month every year. Approved in October, you renew every October.

Connecticut runs HUSKY Health as four coverage groups, and the renewal path depends on which one you are in:

• MAGI groups (HUSKY A for children, parents, and pregnant individuals; HUSKY D for expansion adults 19 to 64): renewed using Modified Adjusted Gross Income methodology. Income is checked against federal data sources, including Social Security Administration records, Internal Revenue Service tax data, and wage data, before DSS asks you for anything.
• Non-MAGI groups (HUSKY C: aged, blind, and disabled residents, and long-term care): renewed under Connecticut's categorically-needy and medically-needy standards, which include an asset test. Income above the limit does not disqualify you outright, it puts you into a spend-down.3 Because federal law requires the state to verify assets at renewal through an Asset Verification System, HUSKY C renewals far less often clear automatically and usually require bank statements, retirement-account records, life-insurance documentation, and a signed authorization.4

The financial standards behind those groups are Connecticut-specific. A single HUSKY C long-term-care applicant is limited to $1,600 in countable assets, and a couple with both spouses applying to $2,400.3 On the MAGI side, HUSKY A covers children up to 196% of the federal poverty level, parents and caretakers up to 133%, pregnant individuals up to 258%, HUSKY B (the separate CHIP band) up to 318%, and HUSKY D expansion adults up to 138% with the standard disregard.5 Your renewal tests whether you still fall within the limit for your group.

Ex Parte Renewal: The Automatic First Step

The single most important federal rule in Connecticut Medicaid renewal is the ex parte default at 42 CFR 435.916. Before DSS asks you for any information at renewal, it must try to renew your eligibility using reliable information already in your case or available from electronic data sources. Only when it cannot renew on that basis may it request information from you.2

In Connecticut, ex parte renewal draws on:

• Social Security Administration retirement, disability (SSDI), and Supplemental Security Income (SSI) records
• Internal Revenue Service tax filings
• State wage and unemployment records
• SNAP and cash-assistance records already in the DSS system
• Medicare entitlement and premium data
• Your prior renewal documentation

If the data confirm you remain within the income limit for your group and that household size and other requirements have not changed, DSS renews you automatically and sends you a notice of the determination and the basis for it. You do not have to sign and return that notice if all the information on it is accurate.2

When ex parte cannot confirm eligibility, DSS must send a renewal form with the information it already has and give you at least 30 days from the date on that form to respond, supply anything missing, and sign it. That 30-day floor is federally required under 42 CFR 435.916(a)(3) for eligibility based on modified adjusted gross income (MAGI). For non-MAGI eligibility (age 65 or older, blindness or disability, long-term care, an MSP, or medically needy), Connecticut may follow the same procedure but need not, so go by the deadline on your notice.2 Ex parte most often fails for self-employment or cash income missing from wage databases, for household changes such as a new baby or a move, and for HUSKY C cases where assets cannot be verified automatically.4

How to Renew HUSKY Health

Under 42 CFR 435.916, DSS may not require an in-person interview as part of the renewal process.2 In Connecticut the fastest and most reliable channel is online through ConneCT, the DSS self-service portal.

ConneCT (reached through connect.ct.gov) lets you view your case, upload documents, complete a renewal, and check the status of a pending action. If you created an account at your initial application, use it; otherwise set one up with your name, date of birth, and the client ID printed on any DSS notice.

The 90-Day Reconsideration Window

If your HUSKY Health coverage closed because you missed the renewal paperwork, you may not have to start over with a new application. Under 42 CFR 435.916, when coverage is terminated for failure to return the renewal form or needed information (a procedural closure, not an eligibility decision), DSS must reconsider your eligibility without requiring a new application if you submit the renewal form within 90 days of the termination date, or within a longer period Connecticut elects. That duty covers MAGI-based eligibility; for non-MAGI groups Connecticut may offer that window but need not, so ask DSS.2

Two distinctions decide whether the window is open to you:

• Procedural termination: you did not respond, did not provide requested documents, or missed the signature. Reconsideration applies. Whether reinstated coverage reaches back to the closure date is handled under Connecticut's own rules, so ask DSS how any gap will be treated in your case.
• Eligibility-based termination: DSS determined you no longer meet the income, asset, residency, or categorical rules. Reconsideration does not apply, and your remedy is a new application or an appeal.

The 90-day clock starts on the termination date, not the date of the notice, so read your closure notice carefully. To use the window, resubmit the renewal (often the same form you received) through any of the five channels above; if you no longer have it, call DSS or use ConneCT to request a new one.3

Children Keep Coverage for 12 Months

Section 5112 of the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2023 requires every state to give children under 19 enrolled in Medicaid or CHIP 12 months of continuous eligibility from the date the child is determined eligible, effective January 1, 2024.1 In Connecticut that covers children in HUSKY A and HUSKY B.

Once a child is enrolled, coverage is locked in for 12 months regardless of changes in family income. If a parent loses HUSKY A mid-year because household income rose, the children keep coverage until their next annual renewal. The period ends early only in limited circumstances, chiefly when the child turns 19 or stops being a Connecticut resident.1 The practical takeaway for parents worried about a raise: report the change accurately. It protects you from later fraud findings.

Federal law also lets states provide a full 12 months of postpartum Medicaid coverage, a permanent state option since the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2023.1 Where a state has taken it, coverage runs to the end of the month in which the 12-month postpartum period ends, and the annual renewal cycle resumes after that.

Long-Term Care and CHCPE Renewals

If you receive Medicaid long-term care, whether in a nursing facility or through the Connecticut Home Care Program for Elders (CHCPE), the renewal has two independent parts, and both must stay current.

Financial redetermination. Conducted by DSS on the 12-month cycle, this review runs the asset test that federal law requires at renewal through the Asset Verification System.4 It reviews your income, your countable assets against Connecticut's $1,600 single limit, and, for a nursing-facility resident, the applied-income calculation.3 A nursing-facility resident keeps a Personal Needs Allowance of $75 per month under Conn. Gen. Stat. section 17b-272, a figure fixed by statute rather than indexed to inflation.6 If you are married, spousal-impoverishment protections let the community spouse keep half the couple's countable assets, bounded on both ends by the 2026 federal standards: a floor of $32,532 and a maximum of $162,660. The floor matters as much as the cap, because a spouse whose half share falls below it is still protected up to it.3

Level-of-care reassessment. Separately, nursing-facility residents and CHCPE participants in the program's nursing-facility-level-of-care category (a federally approved section 1915(c) waiver, the CT Home and Community Based Services Waiver for Elders, which serves people 65 or older who meet a nursing-facility level of care) are reassessed for continued need of that level of care.7 CHCPE itself is open to Connecticut residents ages 65 or older who are at risk of nursing-home placement, meaning they need help with critical needs such as bathing, dressing, eating, taking medications, or toileting, and who meet the program's financial criteria.7 You can pass the financial redetermination and fail the level-of-care review, or the reverse. If the level-of-care review ends your long-term-care coverage, you may continue on standard HUSKY C for non-long-term-care coverage if you are otherwise eligible.

Medicare Savings Program Renewals

Qualified Medicare Beneficiary (QMB), Specified Low-Income Medicare Beneficiary (SLMB), and Additional Low-Income Medicare Beneficiary (ALMB, Connecticut's Qualifying Individual program) eligibility is redetermined on the same 12-month cycle as other non-MAGI Medicaid, with DSS attempting an ex parte renewal first.2 Ex parte works well here because the Social Security retirement and SSDI income these programs test is already in the federal data hub.

Connecticut's Medicare Savings Programs use income limits set well above the federal minimums, and by statute DSS applies no asset test to MSP and decides eligibility on gross income alone.8 That is the practical difference from a HUSKY C renewal: no bank-record review, so more residents keep this help through renewal than in most states. If you stay on QMB, SLMB, or ALMB at renewal, you remain automatically deemed eligible for the Part D Low-Income Subsidy (Extra Help) without a separate application; losing MSP ends that deemed status.

If Your Mail Is Returned

A renewal packet returned as undeliverable can lead to a termination. The federal rule requiring DSS to search for a new address first, 42 CFR 435.919, was removed effective July 31, 2026. Federal law now says only that the agency may act without advance notice when your whereabouts are unknown (42 CFR 431.213(d)), and that coverage must be reinstated if your whereabouts become known while you are still eligible (42 CFR 431.231(d)).9 Connecticut may still have its own procedures, so call DSS if your mail has come back.

Connecticut runs no risk-based Medicaid managed-care plans. Since January 1, 2011, HUSKY Health has been self-insured and coordinated through a single statewide administrative services organization, Community Health Network of Connecticut.10 There is no separate health-plan account to update, so your DSS address is the one that matters. To avoid a returned-mail delay:

• Update your address through ConneCT at connect.ct.gov the moment you move
• Call the DSS Benefits Center at 1-855-626-66323
• File a change-of-address form with the U.S. Postal Service

Appeals and Fair Hearings

If your renewal is denied or your coverage terminated, you have a federal right to a fair hearing under section 1902(a)(3) of the Social Security Act and 42 CFR 431.220.1 In Connecticut, that hearing is held by the DSS Office of Legal Counsel, Regulations and Administrative Hearings (OLCRAH). Because HUSKY Health has no risk-based managed-care plans, there is no plan-level internal appeal to exhaust first; you request the DSS fair hearing directly.10

Under 42 CFR 431.221(d), the state must allow a reasonable time to request that hearing, not to exceed 90 days from the date the notice of action is mailed. Read that 90 days correctly: it is a ceiling on how long a state's window may run, not a guarantee that you get 90 days. A state may set a shorter window, and the shorter state deadline is the one that binds you.10 Connecticut's deadline is 60 days from the date of the DSS Notice of Action for all programs except SNAP, under Conn. Gen. Stat. section 17b-60, and that 60-day deadline is a permitted window below the federal ceiling, not a conflict with it. It is fully enforceable, so go by the date printed on your own notice and do not wait.10 The easiest way to request a hearing is the Hearing Request Form attached to your Notice of Action; a signed letter to the hearing office also works. DSS schedules the hearing within 30 days and generally issues a decision within 90 days of receiving the request.10

Continuation of benefits. Federal law continues your Medicaid during the appeal only if you request the hearing before the action takes effect.11 Connecticut's rule for HUSKY is more generous than for its other programs: for Medicaid, benefits may continue if you request the hearing any time before the date of the proposed action, rather than within 10 days of the notice.10 If the agency's action is later upheld, federal rules permit it to recoup the cost of services furnished only because benefits continued.11

Anyone whose declared status DSS cannot promptly verify is entitled to a reasonable opportunity period, including people declaring U.S. citizenship, not only non-citizens. It ends at the earlier of verification or 90 days after the notice date, and DSS may extend it past 90 days for someone declaring a satisfactory immigration status who is making a good-faith effort to obtain documentation. During the period DSS may not delay, deny, reduce, or terminate benefits for someone it otherwise finds eligible, and it may not cap how many reasonable opportunity periods you receive.12

What Changes After 2026

The COVID-19 continuous-enrollment requirement ended in 2023, and the unwinding redetermination ran through 2024.

Section 71107 of the 2025 budget-reconciliation law (H.R.1, Public Law 119-21) requires states to redetermine eligibility once every 6 months rather than every 12 months for the ACA expansion-adult population, for renewals scheduled on or after January 1, 2027. Its only exemption covers an Indian or Urban Indian as defined in the Indian Health Care Improvement Act, a California Indian, and anyone otherwise determined eligible as an Indian for the Indian Health Service.1 Connecticut adopted ACA Medicaid expansion, so this reaches the state's HUSKY D group of adults 19 to 64 head-on: starting in 2027, many of those enrollees will renew twice a year instead of once.

The same law separately excuses a longer list of people from its new community-engagement (work) requirement, including someone who is medically frail or the parent or caretaker relative of a dependent child 13 and under. A work-requirement exemption is not a renewal exemption: an expansion adult who is medically frail still renews every six months.1

The same law also shortens retroactive eligibility for applications filed on or after January 1, 2027, to two months before the application month for most enrollees and one month for the expansion group, down from the long-standing three-month default.1 The lesson does not change: the renewal packet is the failsafe, and the 90-day window is the backstop if you slip.

Common Connecticut Medicaid Renewal Mistakes

1. Ignoring the renewal packet because the envelope looks like junk. Open anything from DSS right away.
2. Assuming ex parte will handle everything. Ex parte renews only some HUSKY cases; the rest need the packet returned by the deadline printed on the form.2
3. Not asking about the 90-day reconsideration window. After a procedural closure, returning the form within 90 days can get your eligibility reconsidered without a new application.2
4. Missing the asset-verification signature on a HUSKY C renewal. Without your signed authorization, DSS cannot run the required bank-record check and the renewal stalls.4
5. Assuming children lose coverage when a parent does. Children under 19 keep HUSKY for their full 12-month period regardless of family income changes.1
6. Waiting past the 60-day appeal deadline. Connecticut's window is 60 days from the Notice of Action, shorter than the federal 90-day ceiling.10
7. Requesting the appeal too late to keep coverage. Ask for the hearing before the date of the proposed action, and HUSKY benefits continue pending the decision.10

Connecticut Medicaid Renewal: Contacts

The DSS Benefits Center line handles renewals, packet requests, and address updates; the DSS hearing office handles appeals.3,10

Brevy's guides to Connecticut Medicaid income and asset limits, how to apply for Connecticut Medicaid, and the Connecticut Medicaid hub cover the broader eligibility picture. For a directory of every state's Medicaid guides, see the Medicaid by state hub.

Learn More

Find personalized help renewing Connecticut Medicaid at brevy.com.

The information on Brevy.com is for educational purposes only and is not a substitute for professional legal, financial, or medical advice. Rules vary by state and program and change frequently. Always verify with the relevant agency or a qualified professional. Brevy is not a law firm, financial advisor, or healthcare provider.