CHIP
-
All Eyes on States – Time to Say Goodbye to CHIP Waiting Periods
As states are rushing to get their enrollment and eligibility systems in top form going into 2014, HHS just handed them one more critical decision to make: getting rid of outdated CHIP waiting periods. Say Ahhh! readers know that eliminating CHIP waiting periods— or the period of time that a child must remain uninsured before…
-
See How Your State Measures Up on Child Well-being: New Kids Count Data Is Available
By Tara Mancini Last week, the Annie E. Casey released the 24th edition of its Kids Count data book, a go-to source for trends on child well-being. This year’s analysis of national trends compares data from before and after the recession to see how children fare in its aftermath, and the results paint a mixed picture. Since…
-
Connecting Kids to Coverage Grants Announced
The third round of Connecting Kids to Coverage Outreach and Enrollment Grants were announced today. A total of $32 million was awarded in 22 states to 41 grantees, which include state and local governments, tribal organizations, community groups, schools, health care providers and other organizations. Grants were targeted in the states with the largest numbers of…
-
Translating MAGI to Current Monthly Income Will Be Particularly Important for Kids in Medicaid and CHIP
It’s helpful for all Medicaid and CHIP stakeholders to generally understand that starting in January 2014 there will be new ways to count income and household size to determine Medicaid eligibility based on the new ACA rules. While not everyone needs to dive into these policy weeds, there are a number of reasons it’s important…
-
How Many Calls Does it Take to Sign Up for CHIP in Pennsylvania?
Eighty-six phone calls! That’s how many calls it took new parents Ari Friedman and Tara Mendola of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania to finally obtain Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) coverage for their son. (And we all know new parents have nothing better to do than sit on hold!) Ari and Tara are both graduate students who were…
-
On Medicaid and ACA, Arkansas Lawmakers Choose Practical Step Forward Over Ideological Objections
All eyes— again! — have been on my home state of Arkansas this week as the General Assembly late yesterday passed the “private option,” aka the “Arkansas Plan,” or using Medicaid funds to buy exchange coverage for 250,000 uninsured Arkansans starting next year. This was no small feat, given the structural and political barriers at…
-
Colorado Puts an End to CHIP Waiting Period – Let’s End the Wait for All Kids
Colorado children and families can breathe a little easier now that the Governor signed into law a commonsense bill that ends CHIP waiting periods. Colorado had required families to wait for three months from the end of their employer-sponsored insurance before enrolling their children in Child Health Plan Plus, Colorado’s CHIP program. Cody Belzley of the…
-
Medicaid Presumptive Eligibility Coming to a Hospital Near You
Beginning in January 2014, hospitals that provide Medicaid services can begin making presumptive eligibility (PE) decisions giving temporary Medicaid (and/or CHIP) coverage to children, pregnant women, parents and adults covered under the Medicaid expansion. The Affordable Care Act permits this action without regard to whether the state has adopted PE as a policy (as 32…
-
Proposed Medicaid and CHIP Performance Indicators Offer Hope of Transparency and Accountability
It’s nice to have reason to take off my navigator hat for a change of pace. And a Request for Information (RFI) on proposed performance indicators for Medicaid and CHIP released earlier this year gave me a great opportunity to focus on another passion of mine – data to assess the effectiveness of our public…
-
New Resource Looks at Premium Assistance Options in Medicaid/CHIP
Yesterday my new report for the Kaiser Commission on Medicaid and the Uninsured was released called Premium Assistance in Medicaid and CHIP: An Overview of Current Options and Implications of the Affordable Care Act. The paper examines how statutory changes in the Children’s Health Insurance Program Reauthorization Act and the Affordable Care Act have changed…
-
Replacing ARKids First with Exchange Coverage Would Put Children – and Arkansas’s Success – at Risk
Like most health policy folks, I have been watching developments in my home state of Arkansas with much interest. Recent media reports have discussed interest among state leaders to use Medicaid to purchase plans on the exchange, also known as the marketplace that will make private insurance available to many uninsured Arkansans starting next year…
-
Eliminate CHIP Waiting Period – No Child Should Wait for Coverage
As we’ve highlighted several times, the recently proposed ACA rules on Medicaid, CHIP, and the Exchanges kept the option for states to continue requiring uninsured children to wait up to 90 days before enrolling in CHIP. It bears repeating: Waiting periods, still in use in 38 states, make no sense in a post-ACA universe where…
-
Annual 50-State Medicaid and CHIP Survey Shows Progress and Gaps
For the third year, the Kaiser Commission on Medicaid and the Uninsured teamed up with CCF to conduct an annual survey of state Medicaid and CHIP eligibility, enrollment, renewal, and cost-sharing practices. This year’s report, “Getting into Gear for 2014,” clearly shows that states continue to simplify and modernize Medicaid and CHIP in ways that…
-
Getting Into Gear for 2014: Findings from a 50-State Survey of Eligibility, Enrollment, Renewal, and Cost-Sharing Policies in Medicaid and CHIP, 2012-2013
As 2013 begins, implementation of the major provisions of the ACA, including its coverage expansions, is less than a year away. Following the Supreme Court ruling to uphold the ACA and the 2012 elections, efforts to prepare for 2014 are moving into high gear in many states. The majority of states are capitalizing on web-based…
-
New Round of Connecting Kids to Coverage Grants Announced
The fact that we can all be proud of achieving historically high rates of health coverage for children (90%) has been the result of a number of successful strategies: savvy advocacy capitalizing on the high value Americans place on children’s health to expand coverage; removal of the red-tape paperwork burden on families and eligibility offices…
-
23 States Receive CHIPRA Performance Bonuses for Removing Barriers and Enrolling Children in Health Coverage
Demonstrating that covering kids is still a very high priority across the nation, twenty-three states earned CHIPRA performance bonuses for improving access to children’s health coverage and successfully enrolling eligible children. The states will split a total of nearly $306 million. The 23 states include: Alabama, Alaska, Colorado, Connecticut, Georgia, Idaho, Illinois, Iowa, Kansas, Maryland, Michigan, Montana,…
-
Participation Among Children and Parents -Urban Institute Presentation
Participation Among Children and Parents -Urban Institute Presentation
-
CMS Announces 2013 Plans for Connecting Kids to Coverage
CMS has announced plans for continuing its efforts to engage states and stakeholders in its “Connecting Kids to Coverage” Campaign. The re-energized outreach and marketing campaign will include new toolkits, trainings/webinars, organizational and corporate partnership outreach support, earned media support and expertise in reaching key audiences. While efforts will be ongoing, the campaign will also…
-
So Much Research, So Little Time
By Tara Mancini Want to spend less time “Googling” and more time researching? CCF recently launched its new online CCF Research Digest using a service called Zotero to help you do just that. With the ability to search publications by a myriad of fields and tags, the CCF Research Digest will help you to quickly…
-
The Election Results Are In: Now What Happens with the Affordable Care Act?
(Editor’s Note: We welcome Senator Rockefeller’s Senior Health Policy Aide Sarah Dash to Georgetown University’s Health Policy team. She is joining our colleagues at the Center on Health Insurance Reforms where she will direct a 50-state evaluation of state health insurance exchange implementation and its impact on access to affordable, high-quality health care. She will also…