Twenty-three states that have implemented at least five of eight programs to streamline children's health insurance coverage and meet enrollment targets will receive more than $296 million in federal performance bonuses, U.S. Health and Human Services officials announced Wednesday.
According to federal statistics, these and other efforts have increased the number of covered children by 1.2 million since the Children's Health Insurance Program Reauthorization Act was signed in 2009. However, administration officials urged states to continue their progress to enroll another remaining 4.3 million or more who remain eligible but unenrolled.
"Access to health insurance is one of the keys to starting children on a path to a healthy life," said Marilyn Tavenner, acting administrator for the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services during a news conference.
However, she added, "There are millions of kids today who are just a few easy steps from getting the coverage they need to get their checkups and their medicines."
"No parent in America should have to think twice about taking their child to a doctor's appointment or filling a prescription for their child because the cost is too high," Tavenner said. "And no child should have to miss school or activities because they're not getting the care they need to stay healthy."
States can do what they want with the funds, but the intent is that they will be used to help defray the shared Medicaid costs that the states incur by enrolling more children.
This is the third in five rounds of annual performance payments under CHIPRA.
The states that met the requirements are Alabama, Alaska, Colorado, Connecticut, Georgia, Idaho, Illinois, Iowa, Kansas, Louisiana, Maryland, Michigan, Montana, New Jersey, New Mexico, North Carolina, North Dakota, Ohio, Oregon, South Carolina, Virginia, Washington, and Wisconsin. All but seven of the states received performance bonuses last year.
Tavenner and Cindy Mann, CMS deputy administrator, said several states did not try to apply for the money, and many others did but fell short of having the programs in place or meeting enrollment goals.
States had to have five of these eight programs in place in order to make enrollment faster, and less bureaucratic.
- Continuous eligibility, which assures coverage to a child for 12 months, regardless of changes in circumstances, with some exceptions.
- Liberalization of asset (or resource) requirements in which the state imposes no asset test or allows administrative verification of assets by allowing the child or child's parent or representative to declare assets under penalty of perjury or through means other than requiring documentation.
- Elimination of in-person interviews.
- Allows use of the same application and renewal process for both Medicaid and CHIP.
- Automatic/administrative renewal
- Offers presumptive eligibility for children
- Offers express lane enrollment.
- The state offers premium assistance.
"All these efforts to cut red tape have really paid off," said Mann, CMS deputy administrator. She added that much of the streamlining has been made possible through electronic medical records, which avoid requiring parents to fill out multiple forms with the same information.