Our Blog

Many of our supporters and partners have reached out asking how Guild is navigating the changes underway in Minnesota’s Medical Assistance program, the state’s Medicaid program. I welcome these questions. Transparency and stewardship are daily practices here, and in this season of shifting policy, staying in conversation with our community keeps all of us grounded. 

The changes are intended to strengthen financial integrity, modernize aging administrative systems, and protect essential public funding. While these are long-term goals, the effects on the people we serve are immediate.

Most Guild clients depend on Medical Assistance as the foundation for their health care and community support. So we are managing what the transition has produced: enrollment delays, heavier documentation requirements, denied claims, and coverage that lapses while renewals sit in process. Even a brief gap can cost someone access to mental health care, housing support, or medical treatment.

Guild’s position is simple: we do not interrupt care.

When disruptions occur, our teams show up and continue providing services, including care that no standard funding channel will reimburse.  This requires discipline and careful financial management. So far in 2026, Guild has absorbed roughly 50 percent more uncompensated care than in a typical year. By December, that figure could be nearly three times what we normally carry.

We know more is coming. Beginning January 1, 2027, certain adults ages 19 to 64 will need to document work or community engagement activity to keep their coverage. The intent is to encourage workforce participation. In practice, many of the people we serve live with complex, persistent behavioral and physical health conditions that make steady employment difficult. Exemptions exist for people whose conditions limit their ability to work, but qualifying is not automatic — it requires documentation, and keeping the exemption in place means providing it repeatedly.

So we are preparing rather than waiting. We are designing a navigation model to help clients manage eligibility reviews, complete required documentation, and hold onto continuous coverage. Designing it is the straightforward part. Funding it is the question in front of us.

Funding and policy will keep changing. Our purpose will not. We will manage our resources with care, adapt our operations as needs emerge, and make sure every person we serve experiences dignity, stability, and uninterrupted care. Thank you for standing with Guild and with the people we serve.