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CHIP

  • Uninsured Children in the United States

    Researchers at the Georgetown University Center for Children and Families publish this report annually. 2018 Nation’s Progress on Children’s Health Coverage Reverses Course 2017 Nationwide Rate of Uninsured Children Reaches Historic Low 2016 Children’s Health Coverage Rate Now at Historic High of 95 Percent 2015 ACA Helps Bring Child Uninsured Rate Down To New Record…

  • A Troubling Sign: Half a Million Fewer Kids Covered by Medicaid and CHIP in 2018

    Recent news of declines in enrollment in Medicaid, the growth in uninsured children and troubles with new eligibility systems in several states prompted me to take a closer look at the recently updated October 2018 Medicaid and CHIP enrollment numbers posted by CMS. As we had feared, the data shows that in the first ten…

  • 2016 Maps

    The interactive maps and data for 2016 provide information on the percent of adults and children covered by Medicaid and/or CHIP.You can embed these maps on your website by selecting a state on the left then copying the embed code on the right side of the map and pasting it into a post on your…

  • There’s Always Opportunity to Make Medicaid and CHIP Work Better: A Look at Connecticut

    Recently, I had the opportunity to take a close look at how well Connecticut’s Medicaid and CHIP programs – known as Husky Health – are serving children. My assessment and recommendations were published in a new brief released recently by the Connecticut Health Foundation. In many ways, Husky Health is a high performing Medicaid and…

  • MACPAC Releases Medicaid Eligibility, Enrollment and Renewal Case Studies Examining New Data-Driven Processes

    Before the holidays, MACPAC and its contractor, SHADAC, (the State Health Access Data Assistance Center at the University of Minnesota) released findings of a study that examined the status of the new data-driven enrollment and renewal processes enacted as part of the Affordable Care Act. The case studies report on how six states – Arizona,…

  • What Does the Partial Government Shutdown Mean for Medicaid and CHIP?

    A year ago, the entire federal government was shut down for three days over a dispute about DACA.  My colleague Kelly Whitener explained the implications of that full shutdown for Medicaid and CHIP.  We are now in the 14th day of a partial government shutdown over a dispute about funding for a border wall.  Unlike the full…

  • Call for Nominations for Child and Adult Core Set Annual Review Workgroup

    Each year CMS is required to review both the Child and Adult Core Sets of Health Quality Measures in Medicaid and CHIP. To inform the effort, CMS and its partners convene a multi-stakeholder Medicaid workgroup to provide guidance on the core sets. Mathematica Research is coordinating the recruitment of individuals to participate in the 2019…

  • CMS Announces New Connecting Kids to Coverage Outreach and Enrollment Grants

    CMS announced the availability of $48 million in “Connecting Kids to Coverage” outreach and enrollment grants and not a moment too soon. As we recently reported, our nation’s progress on children’s health coverage actually reversed course last year registering the first statistically significant increase in the child uninsured rate in a decade. As a majority…

  • No Changes to Child Core Set of Health Care Quality Measures in Medicaid and CHIP for 2019

    CMS has announced that the Child Core Set of Quality Measures in Medicaid and CHIP will remain the same for 2019. No new measures will be introduced, nor will any 2018 measures be retired. CMS is required to review the core measures annually, and does so in partnership with the National Quality Forum (NQF) and…

  • CMS Posts New Medicaid and CHIP Application Processing Time Report

    Say Ahhh! readers know that I have long been frustrated at the delay in releasing state-level performance indicator data in Medicaid and CHIP. While CMS has posted enrollment and application data for some time, data on the remaining performance indicators – which were announced in September 2013 (that’s more than five years ago!) – have…

  • New Report Shows Progress on Children’s Health Coverage Reversed Course

    [Editor’s Note: For the most recent Georgetown University Center for Children and Families report on children’s health coverage and an interactive version of the report with state-by-state data, click here.] For the past eight years, CCF has published a report tracking health coverage rates for children across the country. This year, for the first time…

  • What Medicaid Can Do for Our Nation’s Youngest Children

    The science is clear: We have a critical opportunity to reach young children during a period of rapid development, with the brain forming one million new neural connections every second. These earliest years are full of possibilities equally as powerful as the vulnerabilities that greatly influence children’s lifelong trajectories. Anyone who’s had the pleasure of chatting…

  • Urban Institute Updates Uninsurance and Medicaid/CHIP Participation Data for Children and Parents

    Several weeks ago, I blogged about a Health Affairs article by Urban Institute researchers that updated the Medicaid and CHIP participation rates for children and parents. Over time, an increasing share of eligible children without other coverage have been enrolled in Medicaid and CHIP, reaching a high of 93.7 percent in 2016, up from 88.7…

  • Developmental Screening Rates Improving for Most States Reporting Child Core Set Measure

    We were thrilled to see release of the latest Child Core Set measures late last week. Say Ahhh! readers know we are closely following this state-reported data as a means to measure quality of care for children—especially since states will be required to report all Child Core Set measures starting in 2024, thanks to the…

  • New Recommendations for the Child Core Set of Quality Measures in Medicaid and CHIP

    Recently, the National Quality Forum (NQF) released its annual report on opportunities to strengthen the child core set of quality measures in Medicaid and CHIP. The initial core set was released in 2010 and its underlying legislative mandate requires CMS to update the core set annually. NQF partners with CMS and a multi-stakeholder Medicaid workgroup…

  • 2017 Child Core Set of Health Care Quality Indicators in Medicaid and CHIP Released

    The results of state reporting on the 2017 Child Core Set of Health Care Quality Measures in Medicaid and CHIP have been released by CMS. The 2017 Child Core Set includes 27 measures that assess key aspects of health care access for children and pregnant women. While reporting on last year’s core set seems timely,…

  • Clearing Up Confusion about the Impact of the CHIP Funding Rescission in Labor-HHS-Education Appropriations Conference Agreement

    In June, the Senate rejected a Trump Administration proposal to rescind federal funding for a variety of programs including the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP).  At the time, we had raised significant concerns because the Administration’s rescission package would have eliminated $2 billion from CHIP’s Child Enrollment Contingency Fund.   Those $2 billion in funds…

  • At Last, Some News on T-MSIS – the Transformed Medicaid Statistical Information System

    Say Ahhh! readers know that I am a fan of how technology can transform eligibility and significantly improve data collection and reporting. And I’ve been anxiously awaiting signs of progress on the Transformed Medicaid Statistical Information System (T-MSIS) since CMS released an August 2013 letter to State Medicaid Directors indicating that the system was being piloted…