Medicaid enrollment rose 6.2 percent and CHIP enrollment 0.5 percent during the first four months of the COVID-19 public health emergency, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services reports.

The enrollment increase can be traced to rising unemployment, with many people losing their employer-sponsored health insurance.  The new figures cover five months, from February through June, the latter four of which marked the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Pennsylvania safety-net hospitals already serve significant numbers of Medicaid and CHIP patients; an increase in their rolls will prove financially challenging to them.

The information comes from CMS’s first monthly “Medicaid and CHIP Enrollment Trends Snapshot.”  Go here for CMS’s news release explaining its new initiative and here to see the trends snapshot itself, which includes figures for Pennsylvania.