Ignoring a renewal notice can end your New Hampshire Medicaid coverage even if you still qualify. New Hampshire Medicaid renewal runs on a federal clock: the law (42 CFR 435.916) requires the state to try to renew your coverage automatically from data it already holds before it ever asks you for paperwork, but when a form does reach you, it has to come back on time.

Renew online at NH EASY or call the DHHS Customer Service Center at 1-844-275-3447.

In This Guide

Recertification and renewal is the most consequential operational moment in a Medicaid beneficiary's year. Eligibility is set once at application, then redetermined at least every 12 months under 42 CFR 435.916, and a missed renewal can end coverage even for someone who still qualifies. A procedural closure usually hits someone who remained eligible and simply did not return the form in time, which is what the 90-day reconsideration window below is designed to fix. New Hampshire's Medicaid agency is the Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS).

The New Hampshire Medicaid renewal cycle

Under 42 CFR 435.916, the state Medicaid agency must redetermine eligibility at least every 12 months. That yearly review is a minimum, not a ceiling: for coverage based on age, blindness, disability, or long-term care, DHHS may redetermine more often. Your renewal period is set when you are first approved and recurs on the same schedule each year. One exception is now on the calendar: adults enrolled through the Granite Advantage expansion group move to a 6-month cycle for renewals scheduled on or after January 1, 2027, covered in the Granite Advantage section below.

Renewals split into two procedural paths depending on eligibility category:

  • MAGI populations (children, pregnant women, parent and caretaker relatives, and Granite Advantage expansion adults age 19 through 64 at or below 133 percent of the federal poverty level, or 138 percent once the standard 5-percentage-point income disregard is applied) are renewed using Modified Adjusted Gross Income methodology. Income is verified through federal and state electronic data sources, including Social Security and IRS records and state wage data.
  • Non-MAGI populations (aged, blind, and disabled adults, nursing-facility and Choices for Independence waiver recipients, and Medicare Savings Program members) are renewed under rules that include an asset test. DHHS must still attempt an ex parte redetermination, though for non-MAGI cases that duty sits in a different paragraph, 42 CFR 435.916(b), and applies "if sufficient information is available to do so." On top of it, Section 1940 of the Social Security Act (42 U.S.C. 1396w) requires every state to run an electronic Asset Verification System for people applying or enrolled on the basis of being aged, blind, or disabled, and to use it to determine or redetermine eligibility, so the asset check reaches you at renewal, not only at application. It runs on a financial-records authorization you sign, at no cost to you, lasting until a final adverse decision, until your eligibility ends, or until you revoke it in writing; the state must tell you its duration and scope, and may find you ineligible on the basis of a refusal or revocation alone.

Ex parte New Hampshire Medicaid renewal: the federal mandate

The governing rule is the ex parte default at 42 CFR 435.916(a)(2). Before DHHS asks you for any information at renewal, it must redetermine eligibility without requiring anything from you whenever it can do so from reliable information already in your account or otherwise available to the agency, including electronic data sources. Only when it cannot may it ask you.

If the data confirm you remain within the income threshold for your category and household composition has not changed, the renewal processes automatically. DHHS must then notify you of the determination and its basis, and tell you to report any inaccuracy; you need not sign and return an accurate notice. Read it anyway, because reporting what is wrong is your job, not the agency's.

When ex parte cannot confirm eligibility, DHHS comes back for what is missing. If your eligibility is based on MAGI, federal law requires a renewal form pre-filled with what the agency already has and at least 30 days from the date on that form to respond, supply anything missing, and sign it. The clock runs from the printed date, not the day it arrives. On a non-MAGI pathway (age, disability, long-term services and supports, a Medicare Savings Program), federal rules let New Hampshire follow the same procedures, including the 90-day reconsideration below, but do not require it, so ask DHHS what applies to you. Common reasons ex parte fails:

  • Income that does not show up in wage databases, such as self-employment, gig work, or seasonal earnings
  • The asset-verification step for aged, blind, disabled, and long-term-care cases, which automated income data cannot complete on its own
  • Household changes such as a new baby, a child moving out, marriage, or divorce
  • Income near a threshold, where a small data discrepancy triggers a manual review

How to renew New Hampshire Medicaid: NH EASY and other channels

Under 42 CFR 435.916, a MAGI renewal may be submitted through any mode of application the agency offers, and no in-person interview may be required. For the non-MAGI pathways (aged, blind, disabled, long-term care, Medicare Savings Programs, medically needy) federal law makes that package a state option rather than a guarantee, so confirm what your case allows. The fastest channel is NH EASY, which DHHS describes as a fast, secure way to view and manage benefits and through which a person may apply for all types of assistance DHHS offers.

Channel Method Notes
Online nheasy.nh.gov View your case, upload documents, update your address, submit the renewal
Phone DHHS Customer Service Center, 1-844-275-3447 Monday through Friday, 8:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. ET
Mail or in person A local DHHS District Office Ask which form your case needs and where to send it first

If you have an NH EASY account from your initial application, use it to renew and keep your contact information current; if not, create one or renew by phone or on paper. See how to apply for New Hampshire Medicaid.

The 90-day New Hampshire Medicaid reconsideration window

If your coverage closed because you missed the renewal paperwork, you usually do not have to start over, and many families reapply from scratch without ever learning that.

Under 42 CFR 435.916, if you lose Medicaid for failure to return the renewal form or necessary information, the agency must reconsider eligibility and treat the late-returned form as the renewal if you submit it within 90 days of the termination, without a new application. That duty is federal for MAGI-based coverage and a state option for the non-MAGI pathways above, so ask DHHS. The rule guarantees the reconsideration itself; whether restored coverage reaches back to the closure date is state policy, so confirm the effective date of any reinstatement.

The 90-day clock starts on the termination date, not the date of the notice, so read your closure notice carefully. Which closures qualify is set out in the table below.

To use the window, resubmit the renewal through NH EASY or any other mode DHHS accepts; if you no longer have the form, call 1-844-275-3447. Note the closure date when you submit so your case is routed correctly.

Granite Advantage and the move to 6-month renewals

New Hampshire operates the ACA Medicaid expansion as the Granite Advantage Health Care Program, covering adults 19 through 64 with household income at or below 133 percent of the federal poverty level under MAGI rules, or 138 percent once the standard 5-percentage-point disregard is applied. Age and income are not the whole test: DHHS also requires that you not be pregnant at application, not be entitled to or enrolled in Medicare Part A or Part B, and not otherwise qualify for mandatory Medicaid coverage such as APTD or ANB.

Section 71107 of the 2025 federal budget-reconciliation law (H.R.1, Public Law 119-21) requires states to redetermine eligibility once every 6 months rather than every 12 for the ACA expansion-adult population, for renewals scheduled on or after January 1, 2027. Its one statutory 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, and it turns on the state making that determination, not on you saying so. Everyone else keeps the cycle they have now. Granite Advantage adults face the renewal touchpoint twice as often.

A second federal condition is now in the rule itself. As of the implementation date set under 42 CFR 435.559, 42 CFR 435.119(d) requires the 50 states and DC to make new-adult-group eligibility subject to the community engagement requirements at 42 CFR 435.550 through 435.563, so meeting the age and income test will not by itself settle a Granite Advantage renewal. Ask DHHS what it will require and when; do not wait for the packet to find out.

The same 2025 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 three-month default that still applies through 2026.

Children's 12-month continuous eligibility

Section 5112 of the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2023 requires every state to give children under age 19 enrolled in Medicaid or CHIP 12 months of continuous eligibility from the date of enrollment, effective January 1, 2024. If a parent loses Medicaid mid-year because household income rose, the children stay covered until their next annual renewal.

Limited exceptions allow mid-year termination: the child turns 19, moves out of state, dies, the family voluntarily disenrolls, or there is fraud. Report income changes accurately anyway; it protects you from later fraud allegations.

Pregnant women and 12-month postpartum coverage

Federal law gives states a permanent option to extend Medicaid and CHIP coverage for a full 12 months after the end of pregnancy, replacing the historic 60-day postpartum window, with full benefits throughout. If you were enrolled while pregnant, ask DHHS how long your postpartum coverage runs and when your annual renewal cycle resumes.

Long-term care and Choices for Independence renewals: two reviews

If you receive New Hampshire Medicaid long-term care, whether in a nursing facility or through the Choices for Independence (CFI) waiver, the renewal has two independent components, and both must stay current: you can pass one and fail the other.

Financial redetermination

DHHS reviews income and assets at least every 12 months, including the asset check federal law requires the state to run at renewal through the Asset Verification System. New Hampshire's 2026 long-term-care income cap is $2,982 per month for a single applicant, the federal 300 percent SSI special income level, used for nursing-facility care, home and community-based services, and the CFI waiver. A resident of a nursing facility, community residence, or residential care facility, including a CFI recipient, keeps a personal needs allowance of $90 per month, and the rest of their income goes to the cost of care. The countable-resource limit is $2,500 for one individual and $4,000 for two, rising by $100 per additional family member, above the federal SSI limit of $2,000. Do not assume the house is automatically safe: New Hampshire's long-term-care booklet publishes no list of exempt assets, and what it does say cuts the other way, that some real property is excluded and some is countable and must be sold within six months. The cash value of a life insurance policy counts toward the $2,500 unless the beneficiary is changed to the funeral home or to DHHS.

Level-of-care reassessment

Because CFI is a federal Section 1915(c) waiver run by the DHHS Bureau of Adult and Aging Services, a nursing-facility level-of-care determination is a required eligibility evaluation alongside the financial criteria, and the waiver has a limited number of slots rather than being an open-ended entitlement. That clinical review is not a one-time test: 42 CFR 441.302(c)(2) requires a reevaluation at least annually, confirming two things together, that you still need the level of care a nursing facility provides and that but for the waiver's services you would otherwise be institutionalized. Clearing the level-of-care threshold alone is not the whole test. If level of care is no longer met, long-term-care Medicaid ends, though the person may continue on standard Medicaid if otherwise eligible. See New Hampshire Medicaid long-term care and the New Hampshire Medicaid HCBS waivers guide.

Applicants above the income cap who cannot cover their medical bills may qualify through New Hampshire's medically-needy pathway, In and Out Medical Assistance, which lets you spend down countable income to a state-set standard by incurring medical expenses; that standard varies by eligibility group and changes over time. Two limits decide what it is worth to you: help does not begin until your qualifying expenses reach the spenddown amount, and what Medicaid then pays is bills incurred during that spenddown period. It is a per-period deductible, not coverage that stays switched on. DHHS points applicants to Form 77j, "What Is In And Out Medical Assistance?"

Returned mail and keeping your address current

The federal rules that once required an agency to search for a new address before acting on mail that comes back as undeliverable were removed from the Code of Federal Regulations effective July 31, 2026. Federal law now says only that an agency may act without advance notice when mail returns with no forwarding address and your whereabouts are unknown, and that coverage must be reinstated if your whereabouts become known while you are still eligible. New Hampshire may still have its own returned-mail procedures, so call DHHS if you think your renewal mail went to an old address.

New Hampshire delivers most Medicaid through Medicaid Care Management, and as of 2026 there are three Medicaid Health Plans: AmeriHealth Caritas New Hampshire, NH Healthy Families, and WellSense Health Plan. That gives you two places to keep your address right:

  • Update your address in NH EASY as soon as you move
  • Call DHHS Customer Service at 1-844-275-3447
  • Update your address with your Medicaid Health Plan
  • File a change-of-address form with the post office

Procedural vs eligibility-based termination

This distinction determines whether you have a 90-day reconsideration window under 42 CFR 435.916 or whether you must file a new application.

Termination type Definition Reconsideration available?
Procedural Failure to return the renewal form, missing signature, no documentation provided, or no response to a request for information Yes; 90 days from the termination date
Eligibility-based DHHS determined you no longer meet income, residency, citizenship, age, disability, or other categorical criteria No; you must file a new application

Read the stated reason on your notice. "Failure to provide requested information" or "no response to renewal" points to the 90-day window; wording that references an income calculation, an asset limit, or a categorical change means your remedy is a new application, an appeal, or both.

Fair hearing rights in New Hampshire

If your renewal is denied or your coverage is 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. That right is not unconditional: under 42 CFR 431.220(b) the agency need not grant a hearing where the sole issue is a federal or state law requiring an automatic change that adversely affects some or all beneficiaries. Anything that turns on your own facts is not that case. Federal law caps the request window at 90 days from the mailing of the notice. That is a ceiling on what a state may allow, not a floor you are owed: a shorter state deadline binds you.

New Hampshire's window is shorter. DHHS routes Medicaid appeals through its Administrative Appeals Unit (AAU), which it describes as independent of its program offices, and directs that an appeal generally be filed within 30 days from the date on the Notice of Decision. Appeal in writing using the DHHS Appeal Request form or a letter, at a District Office, by mail to the AAU, or by email; if you cannot complete the form, tell a DHHS representative you want to appeal.

Continued benefits run on a tighter clock than the appeal itself. DHHS states that if you appeal within 15 days of the date on the Notice of Decision, you may keep your benefits at the same level until a decision is issued, implementing the federal continuation-of-benefits right at 42 CFR 431.230. There is a cost if you lose: if the Department's action is upheld, the continued benefits must be repaid.,

One federal route is easy to miss, and it helps the people cut off with no warning. If the agency acted without the advance notice federal rules require, 42 CFR 431.231(c) says it must reinstate and continue your services until a hearing decision, provided you request a hearing within 10 days of receiving the notice (receipt deemed 5 days after its date unless you show later) and the agency finds the action came from something other than federal or state law or policy. That is a right to reinstatement, not a favor.

If your denial came from your Medicaid Health Plan rather than DHHS, request a state fair hearing after completing the plan's appeal process, and do not carry the 30-day figure over: under 42 CFR 438.408(f)(2) you get no less than 90 and no more than 120 calendar days from the plan's notice of resolution. If the plan misses its own notice and timing requirements, 42 CFR 438.408(c)(3) deems its appeal process exhausted, so you may go straight to the state fair hearing. See New Hampshire Medicaid appeals and fair hearings.

Applicants who declare U.S. citizenship or a satisfactory immigration status that the agency cannot promptly verify are entitled to a reasonable opportunity period, generally ending the earlier of verification or 90 days, during which benefits are not delayed, denied, reduced, or terminated for someone otherwise eligible.

Frequently Asked Questions

What happens if I miss my New Hampshire Medicaid renewal deadline?

Your coverage closes at the end of your renewal period. If the closure was procedural, you did not return paperwork or respond to a request, you have a 90-day reconsideration window to submit the renewal and be reconsidered without a new application (required federally for MAGI-based coverage; a state option otherwise). If you miss the 90 days, you must file a new application through NH EASY.

My child is on Medicaid. If my income goes up mid-year, does my child lose coverage?

No. Under federal continuous-eligibility rules, mandatory since January 1, 2024, children under 19 have 12 months of continuous eligibility from the date of enrollment. Even if your income rises above the threshold, your child keeps coverage until the next annual renewal, with narrow exceptions such as aging out at 19, moving out of state, or fraud.

Can I appeal if my renewal is denied, and how long do I have?

Yes. Federal law lets a state allow at most 90 days from the mailing of the notice, and New Hampshire's is shorter: generally 30 days from the date on the Notice of Decision. That 30-day deadline is the one that binds you, and DHHS tells you to read your own notice to be sure how long you have., If you appeal within 15 days, your benefits may continue until a decision is issued, though they must be repaid if the Department's action is upheld. One exception to the 30 days: after a Medicaid Health Plan's appeal decision, federal rules give you no less than 90 and no more than 120 calendar days to request a state fair hearing.

Why does my long-term-care renewal need bank statements?

Aged, blind, disabled, and long-term-care Medicaid have an asset limit, and federal law requires the state to verify your assets at renewal through an Asset Verification System, which automated income data cannot do on its own. For 2026, New Hampshire's countable-resource limit is $2,500 for one individual and $4,000 for two.

New Hampshire Medicaid renewal: where to get help

Renew or check your case status in NH EASY, or reach DHHS by phone at 1-844-275-3447.

NH EASY Renew online, upload documents, update your address, and check case status. nheasy.nh.gov
DHHS Customer Service Center Renewals by phone, replacement packets, and address updates. 1-844-275-3447
DHHS Administrative Appeals Unit Requests for a Medicaid fair hearing after a denial or termination. Main Building, 105 Pleasant Street, Concord NH 03301. Email: dhhs.aau@dhhs.nh.gov 603-271-4292 or 800-852-3345

The New Hampshire Medicaid hub covers the broader eligibility picture, and the Medicaid by state directory links every state's guides.

Learn More

MedicaidNew Hampshire Medicaid hubSee who New Hampshire Medicaid covers, the 2026 income and asset limits, the Choices for Independence home-care waiver, and how to apply through NH EASY. MedicaidHow to apply for New Hampshire MedicaidHow to apply for New Hampshire Medicaid in 2026: the three ways to apply, what documents to bring, the decision timeline, and the over-income pathway. MedicaidNew Hampshire Medicaid eligibility and income limitsNew Hampshire Medicaid eligibility and 2026 income limits: expansion adults, the long-term-care income cap and asset limit, and the over-income pathway. MedicaidNew Hampshire Medicaid appeals and fair hearingsAppeal a New Hampshire Medicaid denial or termination: the 30-day deadline, how to keep benefits during the appeal, and how to request a fair hearing. MedicaidNew Hampshire Medicaid long-term careNew Hampshire Medicaid pays for long-term care in a nursing home or at home through the Choices for Independence waiver. See the 2026 income and asset limits. MedicaidNew Hampshire Medicaid HCBS waiversNew Hampshire Medicaid HCBS waivers pay for home care through the Choices for Independence (CFI) waiver. See who qualifies, what CFI covers, and how to apply.

Find personalized help renewing your New Hampshire Medicaid coverage 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.

Still have questions?

Brevy answers from this guide and every other guide here, and can check what you qualify for.

BC

Brevy Care Team

Expert eldercare guidance from Brevy's team of healthcare professionals and researchers.