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Enrollment Assistance

  • New Rules Protect Navigators and Certified Application Counselors from Over-Reaching State Laws but Also Impose New Requirements

    Tricia Brooks

    Last week, CMS finalized rules that were proposed in March with a few modifications, some good and some not so good. The rules impact navigators, in-person assisters and certified application counselors (CACs) (collectively known as assisters) as summarized below. 1) Pre-empting certain aspects of state laws that restrict navigator and assisters. States are not precluded…

  • Protecting Medicaid Kids at Renewal

    CCFadmin

    By Martha Heberlein As my colleague, Tricia Brooks, noted a few weeks ago, MAGI-based renewals are upon us in many states (save those that have delayed them, which we talked more about in a separate blog). And buried within the ACA is a little-known provision that specifically protects children who were enrolled in Medicaid (but…

  • How Are We Really Doing on Enrollment in California? Good Data Reporting Will Help Us Find Out

    Guest

    By Kristen Golden Testa, The Children’s Partnership California’s basic enrollment numbers coming out of the first open enrollment period under ACA are quite astounding: about 1.4 million Californians enrolled in Covered California, our state-based marketplace, and 1.9 million enrolled in Medi-Cal, for a whopping total of more than 3 million enrolled. But what’s going on…

  • CHIP Enrollees Gain Same Mandate Accommodation as QHP Enrollees

    CCFadmin

    By Joe Touschner Months ago, CMS clarified that those who signed up for a qualified health plan by the end of open enrollment would not face a tax penalty for lacking coverage in early 2014, even if their plans were not effective until May 1.  This was necessary since the mandate exemption for a short…

  • What’s Missing in Monthly CMS Medicaid and CHIP Enrollment Report?

    Tricia Brooks

    It’s really good to know we can count on the monthly reports from CMS to keep tabs on Medicaid and CHIP application and enrollment activity. Since CMS released the first data in January, we’ve seen improvements in the number of states reporting, and enrollment data was added to the initial report of application volume and…

  • Illinois Keeps Its Eye on the Back Door: Medicaid Renewals

    Guest

    By Stephanie Altman, Sargent Shriver National Center on Poverty Law In Illinois, we’ve been busy enrolling more than 260,000 newly eligible adults through Medicaid’s front door. But we’ve also had our eye on Medicaid’s back door to make sure we don’t lose Medicaid-eligibles through the annual renewal process. The state has been working with us…

  • Washington State’s Hard Work on Medicaid Renewals Pays Off

    Sonya Schwartz

    As part of my colleague’s blog series on renewals, I wanted to share how hard work is paying off on Medicaid renewals in Washington state. Washington is among the first states in the country to get started on MAGI-based renewals. What are MAGI-based renewals? Just like new applications, renewals in Medicaid will be based on…

  • Medicaid & CHIP Participation Rates Show Continued Success of Efforts to Connect Kids with Coverage

    Karina Wagnerman

    Recently, CMS released 2012 rates of participation for children in Medicaid and CHIP. For the last few years, our friends at the Urban Institute have been calculating them.  The new participation rates show the continued success in covering children. Since 2008, the national rate of participation has increased from 81.7% to 88.1%. Other highlights include:…

  • Recommendations to Strengthen Navigator and Assister Programs

    Tricia Brooks

    Hats off to navigators and certified application counselors (CACs) across the country who persevered through the rocky rollout of the marketplaces and helped create the late surge that put enrollment over the top. There is much yet to be learned as we reflect back on open enrollment, but we already know there is much that…

  • Who Gets Extra Time “In Line” and Beyond to Enroll in Health Coverage?

    Tricia Brooks

    Time for a victory lap over the announcement that marketplace enrollment whizzed past the revised target (that was lowered after the rocky launch) and exceeded the original projection of 7 million people? Not for navigators and certified application counselors who deserve much of the credit. They are still helping people swept up in the enrollment…

  • Understanding Special Enrollment Periods: A Look at Some Who Will be Out of Luck

    JoAnn Volk

    As part of our Robert Wood Johnson Foundation-funded Navigator Technical Assistance project, we’ve had the opportunity to hear the range of questions navigators and assisters are fielding from consumers trying to understand their coverage options. Many of these questions have helped fill out our Navigator Resource Guide, which has 270 FAQs ranging from “what is the individual…

  • Express Lane Stays Open for Another Year (and other extensions)

    Elisabeth Wright Burak

    It’s been a while since we checked in on efforts to extend some expiring CHIPRA provisions and other important programs for children. The most viable legislative vehicle for these “extenders” in recent years has been the Medicare payment fix (i.e. Sustainable Growth Rate, or so-called “Doc Fix” ). Say Ahhh! readers may remember that the…

  • Enrollment in Healthcare.Gov Exceeds Expectations

    Joan Alker

    Today the Obama Administration announced that more than 7 million people had signed up for health insurance through healthcare.gov. This exceeds projections made by the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office made before the famously troubled website rolled out last fall. I hope this good news will get as much coverage as the saturation coverage the website’s…

  • A Limited Extension for Insurance Enrollment: Precedents from Medicare Part D

    Jack Hoadley

     On March 25, the Administration created a grace period that will extend the March 31 Marketplace enrollment deadline for Americans who have run into roadblocks in their attempts to sign up for insurance coverage under the Affordable Care Act (ACA).  Various reporters and commenters have pointed to parallels with decisions made in 2006 around the first enrollment period for Medicare Part…

  • New Tools to Help Consumers Compare Health Plans

    Guest

    By Christine Monahan Over the last several months, faculty and staff at CHIR and their sister Center, Georgetown’s Center for Children and Families (CCF), have been providing support and technical assistance to navigators and others assisting consumers with enrollment in the new health insurance Marketplaces.* While the enrollment process can be tricky at multiple steps,…

  • People Who Have Tried to Enroll through HealthCare.Gov Get Extension Beyond March 31st

    Tricia Brooks

    With the deadline for the initial open enrollment on March 31 looming, consumers, advocates, and assisters have been stressing over what happens to people who, for no fault of their own, have not been able to complete their enrollment on HealthCare.Gov or through the federal call center. Late yesterday, federal officials announced that through mid-April,…

  • Proposed Rule Offers Relief from Over-Reaching State Navigator Laws that Restrict Consumer Assistance

    Tricia Brooks

    Last week, CMS issued a proposed rule that describes some of the circumstances in which state laws have overstepped their bounds and interfere with the important work of navigators, non-navigator assisters and certified application counselors (collectively known as assisters). The proposed rule, coupled with the recent court ruling in Missouri that federal law preempts state…

  • Individual Responsibility—What are the Rules?

    CCFadmin

    By Joe Touschner With the end of open enrollment approaching, it’s a good time to review some of the rules surrounding the ACA’s individual responsibility requirement, or individual mandate.  Overall, the individual mandate is intended to impose a tax penalty on those who have access to affordable health coverage yet choose to go uninsured for…

  • Google Maps Can Help Advocates Target Outreach Efforts

    CCFadmin

    By Tara Mancini Knowing where the uninsured children are is the first step toward connecting them with coverage. In our November brief on children’s health insurance coverage, we named the 20 counties with the highest number of uninsured children. I’ve uploaded all of the 1-year and 5-year American Community Survey (ACS) data into Google maps so that you can…

  • School-Based Health Centers Provide Important Access Points for Children’s Health Care

    Guest

    By Lorraine Gonzalez-Camastra, Children’s Defense Fund – NY As our nation moves to have more Americans gain access to health care by acquiring health insurance coverage through the Affordable Care Act (ACA), many states are looking to figure out how to meet the capacity of treating those who are newly insured.  Ensuring steady access points…