Enrollment Assistance
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Tapping State Ingenuity to Streamline Access to Benefits
Today, families in need of child care assistance, health coverage and food assistance often have to apply to three different agencies, providing pretty much the same information and documents to each of them. All the while, different eligibility workers handle this information to determine the family’s eligibility separately for each program. Placing such redundant and…
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Holding Steady, Looking Ahead: Annual Findings of a 50-State Survey of Eligibility Rules, Enrollment and Renewal Procedures, and Cost Sharing Practices in Medicaid and CHIP, 2010-2011
Over the past year, as the nation’s attention was focused on the country’s economic problems and the debate over the passage of broader health care reform, Medicaid and the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) continued to play their vital role of providing coverage to millions of people who otherwise lack affordable coverage options. In 2010,…
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Comments Sought on CMS Proposal to Pay 90% Match on Medicaid Eligibility Systems
By Jocelyn Guyer As I was having a “chat” with my husband earlier this week about who was supposed to have come up with a dinner plan, I started thinking about the similarities between married life and health care reform implementation. (Well, to be honest, this wasn’t my very first thought when I came home…
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Can’t Wait to See What It’s Like to Get Health Insurance Through an Exchange?
Waiting for 2014 is a bit like being a child excitedly anticipating Christmas or Hanukkah. It just can’t get here quickly enough. Thinking about the concept of “no wrong door” and streamlined, paperless enrollment in Medicaid and CHIP certainly leaves me with visions of sugarplums dancing in my head. As we approach the holidays, our…
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CMS Proposes A Medicaid Rule You (and States) Might Like
I’m not big on rules. When I ran New Hampshire’s Children’s Health Insurance Program and had to talk with a family who was unhappy about some bureaucratic rule, I often diffused the conversation by saying “I don’t make the rules, if I did there wouldn’t be any.” I know, that was a cop-out but it…
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Behind Door #1….Coverage!
By Claudia Page, Social Interest Solutions The Affordable Care Act (ACA) is truly a game-changer in how consumers will connect to coverage. For many consumers, especially low-income individuals in need of public benefits, seeking coverage today is a complicated maze of paper forms and referrals, disconnected eligibility systems and silos, multiple trips to social services…
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Kansas Tackles Backlog with Commonsense Solutions to Improve Efficiency
By Suzanne Wikle of Kansas Action for Children At a time when I can pay my bills using an Iphone or Blackbery, it seems a no-brainer that states should be pursuing more technological fixes to simplify and streamline processes to ensuring that families are able to access health insurance through Healthwave, Kansas’ Medicaid and Children’s Health…
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Study Concludes That Medicaid Retention Among Children Has Improved
One of the many lessons learned about advancing children’s health coverage is how critical retention in Medicaid and CHIP is to our coverage goals. Dr. Benjamin Sommers drove this point home in a study that concluded that one-third of all eligible, uninsured children in 2006 had actually been enrolled in Medicaid or CHIP in the prior…
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CCF Comments to NAIC on Exchange Coordination with Medicaid and CHIP
CCF Comments to NAIC on Exchange Coordination with Medicaid and CHIP
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Implementing Health Care Reform: Key Questions for States
Under health care reform, the federal government is tasked with establishing the framework under which many provisions of the law are implemented. Within this framework, though, state policymakers will make many key decisions and serve as critical partners in the implementation process. States must begin planning soon for the bulk of reforms that go into…
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Getting it Right: State Policymakers Identify 10 Steps to Successful Implementation of Federal Health Reform
The National Academy of State Health Policy (NASHP) is an independent academy of state health policymakers working together to identify emerging issues, develop policy solutions, and improve state health policy and practice. Recently, its executive committee identified ten aspects of health reform that states must get right in order to successfully implement federal health reform.…
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Arizona Takes First Step to Restore Children’s Health Insurance
By Matt Jewett, Children’s Action Alliance of Arizona Not a lot of good news has come out of Arizona this year. Amidst leading the country in job losses, selling our state Capitol to raise money (we’re leasing it back), and a divisive immigration debate gaining national attention, we also became the first state ever to…
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Health Reform Web Portal Is On Its Way
By Martha Heberlein Mark your calendars – on July 1, 2010, HHS plans on launching the new health reform web portal to provide state-level information about affordable health coverage options. In anticipation of the launch, regulations were released today detailing what information the portal will include and how the data will be collected. The portal will…
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Backlogs Put Children’s Health Coverage at Risk
By Gary Brunk President & CEO, Kansas Action for Children “I just couldn’t believe the state would cut personnel on a program that’s for kids,” commented Harold Stultz to a reporter from the CBS affiliate in Wichita, Kansas. According to a local television news report, Harold’s 12-year-old son Keenan had injured his knee during a…
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What About Those Uninsured Kids? How Many Are Eligible for Medicaid or CHIP?
By Martha Heberlein Medicaid, and it’s companion program, CHIP have had amazing success in reducing the number of uninsured children over the years. The recent Census numbers highlight this fact – in 2008, the number of uninsured children was at its lowest in 20 years, due in large part to public programs filling in the…
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Senate Health Reform Bill’s Medicaid and CHIP Provisions
The Senate bill is finally out, and Majority Leader Reid is looking to get through a cloture vote on Saturday. The key parts of the bill that we’ve been tracking haven’t changed too much from the Senate Finance version. One change of note, the implementation date for the coverage pieces in the bill was moved…
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National Summit Kicks Off Renewed Outreach and Enrollment Effort
An enthusiastic crowd of more than 500 gathered in Chicago last week for the National Children’s Health Insurance Summit hosted by the Centers for Medicaid and Medicare (CMS). Attendees included CHIPRA outreach grantees, individuals from community-based and provider organizations, national and state experts, and officials from federal and state government. The purpose of the event…
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What a Novel Idea: Making Sure No Newborn Leaves the Hospital Uninsured!
New Jersey is putting this idea to the test with its new “Insured for Sure” initiative that is being piloted in nine New Jersey hospitals. Hospital staff will check the insurance status of all newborns and provide data to the Department of Health and Senior Services (DHSS) verifying a baby’s coverage under the parent’s insurance.…
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HHS Awards $40 Million in Outreach and Enrollment Grants
Yesterday, Secretary Sebelius awarded $40 million to 69 grantees in 41 states and the District of Columbia to find and enroll children who are uninsured but eligible for Medicaid or CHIP. This is the first round of outreach and enrollment grants funded through the Children’s Health Insurance Reauthorization Act (CHIPRA), which was signed by President…
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Enrollment Reopens in California’s CHIP Program
Just two months after freezing enrollment in the Healthy Families Program and initiating a waitlist, enrollment has reopened in California Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP). A budget shortfall of just under $200 million has been plugged by a generous contribution from the state’s First Five Commission, increased family cost-sharing, and a new premium tax on…