Today, the Senate Finance Committee released a draft summary and description of the Medicare Sustainable Growth Rate (SGR) repeal, or “doc fix,” bill that committee will take up Thursday morning.  While the Medicare “doc fix,” a move to permanently change the way Medicare pays providers, is the committee’s featured event, the Chairman’s Mark also seeks to extend a number of Medicaid/CHIP and other policies of importance to low-income children and families. Recommended extensions include:

–       CHIPRA’s Express Lane Eligibility (ELE, CHIPRA Section 203) option until September 30, 2015, allowing states to rely on findings from other programs to determine a child’s eligibility for Medicaid or CHIP.  Extended in last year’s fiscal cliff deal, ELE will expire September 20, 2014, with no additional action.

–       CHIPRA child health quality measures (CHIPRA Section 401) until September 30, 2015, including $15 million in designated funding to continue development and state reporting on child health quality measures.  (Unfortunately, another effective CHIPRA provision the draft does not extend is performance bonuses, which expired in September.)

–       Transitional Medicaid Assistance (TMA under SSA 1925) until December 31, 2018, requiring states to continue a six-month extension of Medicaid benefits for low-income families that would otherwise lose coverage when their income increased, typically for work-related reasons.  This is particularly important in states that do not expand Medicaid.

–       Family-to-Family Health Information Centers, which received a one-year extension in the late 2012 fiscal cliff deal, through FY2018 at $6 million annually to continue helping families of children and youth with special health care needs to navigate the health care system and make informed choices about health care.