Eligibility & Enrollment
-
New! Tips for Advocates on Preparing for Unwinding of the PHE Continuous Eligibility Provision
[Editor’s Note: A new version of our Tips and Best Practices for Unwinding the Medicaid Continuous Coverage Protection can be found here.] Although the end of the public health emergency (PHE) remains a moving target, it’s not too early to start planning for phasing out the continuous eligibility maintenance of effort provision and the eventual…
-
Participation of Eligible, Uninsured Children in Medicaid and CHIP Declined Again in 2019
[Editor’s Note: You can find state level Medicaid/CHIP participation rates on CCF’s State Data Hub.] Since the American Community Survey (ACS) was first released in 2008, the Urban Institute has estimated the share of uninsured children who are eligible but not enrolled in Medicaid and CHIP. Several weeks ago, Urban released its latest analysis based…
-
Medicaid Continuous Eligibility Linked with Better Health, More Efficient Health Care Spending
Continuous health insurance coverage produces a broad array of benefits across the health care sector for individuals, states, health plans, and providers. In particular, Medicaid continuous eligibility promotes health equity by limiting gaps in coverage for low-income children and adults who experience disproportionate rates of health disparities. Consistent access to health care, including management of…
-
Continuous Coverage in Medicaid and CHIP
Executive Summary Continuous health insurance coverage produces a broad array of benefits across the health care sector for individuals, states, health plans, and providers. In particular, Medicaid continuous eligibility promotes health equity by limiting gaps in coverage for low-income children and adults who experience disproportionate rates of health disparities. Consistent access to health care, including…
-
Opportunities to Improve Guidance on Phasing out the Public Health Emergency Continuous Eligibility Provision
In December 2020, the Trump administration issued guidance on unwinding the Medicaid continuous eligibility provision associated with the COVID-19 public health emergency (PHE). There are a number of opportunities for the Biden administration or Congress to strengthen requirements for states to ensure that eligible Medicaid enrollees do not lose coverage at the end of the…
-
States Move Toward Multi-Year Continuous Eligibility for Children in Medicaid
Children need consistent access to health care, especially in their early years when frequent screenings, vaccinations, and well child checkups are so critical to their development and school readiness. And despite efforts to streamline and simplify eligibility processes and improve retention, many children covered by Medicaid (as well as other sources of health insurance) experience…
-
Kaiser Family Foundation and Georgetown CCF Release 50-State Survey on Medicaid and CHIP Eligibility and Enrollment
The 2021 Annual 50-State Survey on Medicaid and CHIP Eligibility and Enrollment conducted by the Kaiser Family Foundation (KFF) and CCF is now available. As in previous years, the report confirms eligibility levels for children, pregnant women, parents and expansion adults. However, in light of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, the survey was scaled back in…
-
Medicaid and CHIP Eligibility, Enrollment, and Cost Sharing Policies as of January 2021: Findings from a 50-State Survey
Executive Summary During the coronavirus pandemic, Medicaid has played a key role in providing coverage to millions of people who have lost their jobs or their health coverage. In addition, provisions included in the Families First Coronavirus Response Act (FFCRA) and the Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security (CARES) Act require states to maintain eligibility…
-
Biden Administration Announces It Will Reopen Federal Marketplace Enrollment
Today, January 28, 2021, President Biden signed an executive order establishing a new special enrollment period for the Affordable Care Act’s marketplaces in most states, in order to increase health coverage during the COVID-19 pandemic. The special enrollment period will begin February 15, 2021 and run through May 15, 2021 and like the annual open…
-
Limited Postpartum Medicaid Coverage Extensions are a Missed Opportunity
States are continuing to push for extending Medicaid coverage for postpartum women beyond the current federal cutoff of 60 days after the end of their pregnancy. Just in the last month, three more states submitted waiver applications to CMS: Indiana, Georgia, and Texas. Before the end of the year, we submitted comments on Indiana’s limited…
-
CMS Releases Guidance on Unwinding the COVID-19 MOE
States and stakeholders now have the long-awaited CMS guidance on advance planning in Medicaid and CHIP for the end of the public health emergency (PHE). There’s a lot to digest in this 54-page State Health Official letter (SHO). It discusses what happens to the various pandemic-related authorities and waivers and what states must do to…
-
Uninsured and Unemployed? Medicaid and CHIP Provide Lifelines to Families in Need
In these tough times, when so many people have lost their jobs and and their health insurance, Medicaid and the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) are lifelines families can turn to for help covering the cost of health care. Medicaid and CHIP provide free or low-cost health coverage for children and pregnant women with low…
-
Child Enrollment in Medicaid and CHIP Remains Down in 2019
As of October 2019, the decline in child enrollment in Medicaid and CHIP held at .6 percent for calendar year 2019 based on the most recent enrollment data posted by CMS. While this is an improvement over the 2.2 percent decline in 2018, it still indicates that overall enrollment in Medicaid and CHIP is not…
-
Fact Checking CMS Administrator’s Claim on Outreach and Enrollment Efforts for Kids
In a recent interview on the PBS News Hour, Kaiser Health News reporter Sarah Varney asked CMS Administrator Seema Verma about steps the administration is taking to address the troubling increase in the number of uninsured children and its connection to the decrease in child enrollment in Medicaid and CHIP. Readers of SayAhhh! are already…
-
MAGI Application Processing Time Report Shows Modest Improvement in 2019
States are required to routinely report to CMS a number of performance indicators but few have been published to date. The most current and frequent data that are available publicly include application volume by source, determinations by program, and both Medicaid and Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) point-in-time enrollment (which CCF tracks and reports on…
-
Latest CMS Data Show Slight Improvement in Decline in Child Enrollment in Medicaid and CHIP
Based on the recent release of final August 2019 enrollment data by CMS, the decline in child enrollment in Medicaid and CHIP improved ever so slightly from a 3 percent decline in the 18-month trend from December 2017 to June 2019 to a 2.9 percent decline over the 20-month period through August 2019. At the…
-
Renewing Bipartisan Commitment to Help Uninsured Children Should be Top Priority
Today we released our ninth annual report that tracks children’s health insurance coverage at the state and national level. This report looks at two-year trends from 2016 to 2018 analyzing American Community Survey data from the Census Bureau. We believe this is the first national report to look at this two-year time period, a time…
-
Improving State Administration and Procedures to Regain Medicaid/CHIP Enrollment Momentum for Kids
See our full blog series on evidence-based policies available to policymakers to prevent more eligible children from losing health coverage. As Say Ahhh! readers know, in May, we released a comprehensive report showing that child enrollment dropped by nearly 1 million children in 38 states in 2018 and have continued to track the growing enrollment…
-
Maximizing the Use of Technology to Regain Enrollment Momentum in Medicaid
See our full blog series on evidence-based policies available to policymakers to prevent more eligible children from losing health coverage. As Say Ahhh! readers know, in May, we released a comprehensive report showing that child enrollment dropped by nearly 1 million children in 38 states in 2018 and we have continued to track the growing…
-
Most Recent CMS Data Show Child Enrollment in Medicaid/CHIP Dips Again in June 2019
In June, another 62,000 children lost Medicaid or CHIP coverage, bringing the 18-month enrollment decline (between December 2017 and June 2019) to more than 1.1 million children nationwide or an overall 3 percent drop. Based on CMS or state enrollment data, 37 states have experienced declines of enrollment ranging from less than 1 percent to…
