CHIP
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Medicaid/CHIP Managed Care Regulations: Network Adequacy and Access to Services
Georgetown University Center for Children and Families (CCF) and the National Health Law Program (NHeLP) have teamed up to bring advocates for children and low-income families critical information about the recently finalized Medicaid and CHIP managed care regulations. This paper is the fourth in the series, and it describes how the new rules assure network…
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CMS Approves Arizona Plan to Re-Open CHIP (KidsCare)
Today, Arizona “officially” joined the rest of the country as CMS approved its plan to re-open its CHIP plan. As Say Ahhh! readers know, new enrollment in Arizona’s CHIP plan (KidsCare) was frozen for several years. Now children living in all 50 states and DC will have the opportunity to sign up for CHIP coverage.…
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Recommended Changes to the 2017 Child Core Set of Health Care Quality Measures
As I noted in a blog last year, CMS reviews the Child Core Set of Health Care Quality Measures annually. Advising CMS’ quality activities is the Measure Applications Partnership (MAP), a public-private partnership convened by the National Quality Forum (NQF), a not-for-profit, nonpartisan, membership-based organization that works to catalyze improvements in health care. MAP is…
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A Preview of Georgetown University’s Center for Children and Families 2016 Conference
We are so excited for our annual conference happening in just two short weeks! What can you expect this year? Media insights on today’s political landscape from health journalists Phil Galewitz (KHN), Sarah Kliff (VOX), and Rachana Pradhan (POLITICO). A glimpse into the future of children’s coverage from experts such as Cindy Mann, Anne Schwartz,…
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How the New Medicaid/CHIP Managed Care Regulations Enhance the Beneficiary Experience
Thanks to a grant from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, CCF has teamed with NHeLP to launch a series of explainer briefs to unpack the new Medicaid/CHIP managed care regulations. Two briefs in the series have been released: Looking at the New Medicaid/CHIP Managed Care Regulations Through a Children’s Lens and Medicaid/CHIP Managed Care Rules: Improving Consumer…
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Medicaid/CHIP Managed Care Regulations: Enhancing the Beneficiary Experience
As managed care and particularly mandatory managed care programs have become the predominant model for delivering care in Medicaid, there has been a growing recognition of the need to provide potential enrollees with accurate and timely information about their managed care options, to enable and encourage an active choice of plans, and to ensure that…
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Florida and Utah Remove 5-Year Wait for Legal Immigrant Children
July 1 will be a great day for children living in Florida and Utah as the five-year Medicaid/CHIP waiting period for legal immigrant children will be eliminated. Now 30 states and DC have accepted the Immigrant Children’s Health Improvement Act (ICHIA) option passed into law as part of the reauthorization of CHIP in 2009. (Note:…
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How the New Medicaid/CHIP Managed Care Regulations Improve Consumer Information
As my colleague, Kelly Whitener, announced last week, thanks to a grant from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, CCF has teamed with NHeLP to launch a series of explainer briefs to unpack the new Medicaid/CHIP managed care regulations. The first brief, Looking at the New Medicaid/CHIP Regulations Through a Children’s Lens, was published last week.…
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Medicaid/CHIP Managed Care Regulations: Improving Consumer Information
Over the past decade or so as managed care has become the predominant delivery system in Medicaid and CHIP, there has been a growing recognition of the need for current, accurate, and thorough consumer information to aid potential managed care enrollees in making an informed plan selection and in understanding how to maximize their benefits…
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More on that HHS QHP-CHIP Comparison
My last blog before maternity leave was on the release of HHS’s certification summary, or the results of the agency’s Congressionally mandated comparison of CHIP with the qualified health plan (QHP) coverage children receive. My first blog since returning to work full time is on the same topic—in late May, HHS’s Office of the Assistant…
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Introducing our Medicaid/CHIP Managed Care Series
As readers of Say Ahhh! know all too well, CMS recently finalized sweeping Medicaid and CHIP managed care regulations. The rules cover a wide range of topics important to children and low-income families, like improving consumer information, enhancing the beneficiary experience, assuring network adequacy and access to services, advancing quality and ensuring accountability and transparency.…
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Looking at the New Medicaid/CHIP Managed Care Regulations Through a Children’s Lens
In May 2016, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) finalized sweeping regulatory changes for managed care in Medicaid and the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP). Almost nine of every 10 children enrolled in Medicaid and CHIP receive health care through a managed care arrangement. This paper examines the impact of Medicaid/CHIP Managed Care…
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How Is Florida’s Medicaid Managed Care Working for Children?
How is Florida’s Medicaid managed care working for children? To answer this question, we looked at existing data sources and also conducted a survey of pediatricians in Florida. Our results suggest there is considerable room for improvement in Medicaid managed care for Florida’s children.
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How Did Arizona Reach a Bipartisan Agreement to Re-open KidsCare?
By Joe Fu, Children’s Action Alliance of Arizona After six years without KidsCare, Arizona will no longer be the only state in the country without a functioning Children’s Health Insurance (CHIP) program. With bipartisan support, Arizona’s Legislature pushed through a measure to reinstate KidsCare in the final moments of the session. On May 6, 2016, Arizona’s…
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Six States Hold the Key to Reaching Nearly Half of the Uninsured Kids Who Are Eligible for Medicaid/CHIP
By Genevieve M. Kenney, Jennifer Haley, Clare Pan, Victoria Lynch, and Matthew Buettgens, Urban Institute, Funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation We recently examined how children’s coverage fared during the first year of implementation of the major coverage provisions of the Affordable Care Act (ACA). We found increases in participation in Medicaid and the Children’s…
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New CCF Report: Improving Marketplace Coverage for Children
By Sean Miskell and Kelly Whitener The Marketplaces created under the Affordable Care Act (ACA) have played an important role in expanding access to health insurance. Though relatively few children (approximately one million) receive their coverage through the Marketplace compared with Medicaid and CHIP, it is nonetheless an important option for children not eligible for…
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How Does Florida Perform on the Quality of Health Care for Children Enrolled in Medicaid and CHIP?
Since 2011, the U. S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has released an “Annual Report on the Quality of Care for Children in Medicaid and CHIP.” The report includes data submitted by the states on the Child Core Set of Health Care Quality Measures (child core set) and summarizes the results of the…
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New Study Confirms that ACA Welcome Mat for Kids was Indeed Welcoming
My favorite study from our wonderful colleagues at the Urban Institute has just been released, and it underscores that the sharp reduction in the uninsured rate for children was closely linked to the ACA. The study, like others before it (including our own) documents the decline in the number of uninsured children to historic lows…
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HAPPY MOTHER’S DAY: Health Milestones that All Parents and Our Nation Should Celebrate
By Liane Wong, The David and Lucile Packard Foundation Just over a week ago, data released from the Urban Institute gave all parents a milestone to celebrate. Since 1997, the share of uninsured children declined by 75% and for the first time in history, 95 percent of the nation’s children have health insurance. For our…
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Major New Rule Seeks to Modernize & Improve Quality of Medicaid Managed Care
Earlier this week, CMS released the much-anticipated final rule on Medicaid and CHIP managed care. The rule marks the first update to Medicaid managed care rules in over a decade, and it comes at a time when more and more Medicaid beneficiaries are covered under managed care arrangements. Three-quarters of children, and virtually all adults…
