Secretary Sebelius Awards $40 Million to States to Find, Enroll Children in CHIP, Medicaid

Georgia grantees are West End Medical Centers Inc and Medical College of Georgia Research Institute.

HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius today announced $40 million in grants to 69 grantees in 41 states and the District of Columbia to help them find and enroll children who are uninsured but eligible for either Medicaid or the Children's Health Insurance Program (CHIP).

"Today's awards will help fulfill President Obama's pledge to assure the health and well-being of our nation's children," said Secretary Sebelius. "With millions of Americans either out of work or otherwise struggling to make ends meet during this recession, there is an even greater urgency to bring steady, reliable health care to children in these families who may have lost their coverage."

Recognizing that millions of children are eligible for Medicaid or CHIP, but are therefore needlessly uninsured, the Children's Health Insurance Program Reauthorization Act of 2009 (CHIPRA) set aside $100 million for fiscal years 2009-2013 expressly to help find and enroll eligible children. Of the total outreach amount, $80 million will be given to states and other organizations, $10 million to Tribal organizations and $10 million for a national outreach effort. Today's awards are for a two year period ending Dec. 31, 2011, which will then be followed by a
second round of $40 million in new grants.

As called for in CHIPRA, grants were awarded to applicants whose outreach, enrollment and retention efforts will target geographic areas with high rates of eligible but uninsured children, particularly those with racial and ethnic minority groups who are uninsured at higher than-average rates. For example, 20 percent of the projects to be funded will target Hispanic children, with an emphasis on Hispanic teens, and 11 percent will focus on homeless children and seven percent will be aimed at Native American/Alaska Native children.

The vast majority of grantees will be using multiple, community-based approaches. One grantee in Missouri, for example, will work with a consortium of 35 churches in low-income, minority communities. Those parishioners will go door-to-door to locate potentially eligible children and then help those families apply for CHIP or Medicaid coverage. Another grantee will place self-service kiosks in community centers and Native American Chapter Houses (community halls) where there will also be staff available to help with applications if needed. One state school system will track children who receive free or reduced cost lunches and, with the families' permission, share that information with state health programs, which will, in turn, mail applications for CHIP and Medicaid to those families. The state will also provide one-on-one-assistance with those applications.

The grant awards require that recipients be able to show actual increases in enrollment and retention of children already in the programs. Both CHIP and Medicaid state agencies are to report to the Centers for Medicare & Medicare Services (CMS) the number of new enrollees and those who retained coverage that are directly attributable to the grant activities. Grantees are also to report activities they believe were the most effective in finding, enrolling and maintaining
children in these benefit programs.

"No child in America should go without decent health care," said Cindy Mann, director of the Center for Medicaid and State Operations -- the group within CMS that will administer the grants. "With the funds we are awarding today we hope to reduce the number of children who do."

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SCHIP Provides Health Coverage to 7.4 Million Children in 2008

Some 7.4 million children were enrolled in the State Children's Health
Insurance Program (SCHIP) in 2008 -- a four percent increase over the
previous year, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services
announced today. The announcement comes as Congress is debating
reauthorization of SCHIP, which is projected to expand coverage to an
additional four million children.

"With unemployment numbers rising and the economy struggling to regain
momentum, more and more American families are relying on SCHIP to insure
their children get the health coverage they need," said Acting HHS
Secretary Charles Johnson. "It is no surprise that SCHIP enrollment
went up in 2008 and we expect this trend to continue well into 2009 if
the program is reauthorized."

Created in 1997, SCHIP is a state and federal partnership designed to
help uninsured children. SCHIP received $40 billion in federal funds
over 10 years through 2007. The Medicare, Medicaid and SCHIP Extension
Act of 2007 extended the program until March 31, 2009, with an
appropriation of $5 billion for each of fiscal years 2008 and 2009, with
fiscal year 2009 funding available only through March 31, 2009. The
legislation also provided $1.6 billion in funding for states with SCHIP
budget shortfalls for fiscal year 2008 and $275 million for state
shortfalls through the first two quarters of fiscal year 2009.

Enrollment data, compiled by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid
Services (CMS), and based on state reports, show that 7.4 million
children were enrolled in SCHIP at some point during federal fiscal year
(FFY) 2008, compared to 7.1 million for fiscal 2007. During FFY 2008,
334,616 adults were covered with SCHIP funds.

"While more children are relying on the program, we know millions more
children need health care coverage and that is why we need a strong
SCHIP to meet the nation's growing need," said Acting Secretary Johnson.
"President Obama believes that healthy children are the key to a healthy
economy and a healthy future for our country. We look forward to
working closely with Congress to reauthorize SCHIP and to working with
the States to do every thing we can to enroll every eligible child in
the program."

The SCHIP targets uninsured children who live in families with incomes
generally around 200 percent of the federal poverty level ($42,000 for a
family of four in 2008), which is too high in most states to qualify for
Medicaid, but in many cases, too low to afford private coverage.

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