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Date: September 30, 2009 Secretary Sebelius Awards $40 Million to States to Find, Enroll Children in CHIP, Medicaid "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." 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." See a list of grantees by state. Note: All HHS press releases, fact sheets and other press materials are available at http://www.hhs.gov/news.
DATE: Thursday, September 3, 2009 State Health Access Program FY 2009 Grant Awards Kansas Health Policy Authority, Topeka, Kansas State of Maine, Governor's Office of Health Policy & Finance, Augusta, Maine Minnesota State Dept of Human Services, Saint Paul, Minnesota Nevada Department of Health and Human Services, Carson City, Nevada Health Research Inc. / NYS Dept of Health, Albany, New York NC Department of Health and Human Services, Raleigh, North Carolina State of Oregon, Salem, OR: Oregon, Salem, Oregon Texas Health & Human Services Commission, Austin, Texas Virginia State Department of Health, Richmond, Virginia State of Washington, Olympia, Washington WV Department of Health and Human Resources, Charleston, West Virginia Wisconsin Department of Health Services, Madison, Wisconsin
News on HB 2116: One percent tax on insurance premiums to add 80,000 uninsured children to the Oregon Health Plan, achieving insurance coverage for 95% of Oregon children.
(Information from: North West Health Foundation’s E-news, July 2009)
News on HB 2009: Restructures health system to contain costs and creates the Oregon Health Authority to assume most state health functions:
(Information from: North West Health Foundation’s E-news, July 2009)
Summary of SB 862: Requires Administrator of Office for Oregon Health Policy and Research to adopt rules for approval of community-based health care initiative and of community-based health care [coverage] improvement program operated by initiative. Exempts approved initiative and program from Insurance Code. For more information, click here for ‘Multi-Share Project’. (Information from: The Oregonian’s, ‘Your Government’)
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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.