States have two years to spend each annual allotment before any excess funds are redistributed to states that have a financing shortfall—when projected CHIP expenditures exceed available funds to finance the program. States with a shortfall that have met an average enrollment target can also access funding from the Children’s Health Insurance Program Reauthorization Act (CHIPRA) child enrollment contingency fund (National Academy for State Health Policy, 2014) .
Why is federal CHIP financing a current issue? The Affordable Care Act (ACA) extended federal funding for CHIP allotments through federal fiscal year (FFY) 2015. Under current law, states will receive their final federal CHIP allotments in two semi-annual installments with the final …show more content…
The ACA requires all states to have a process for screening children for Medicaid eligibility if federal CHIP funding runs out. Those that are ineligible for Medicaid must then be enrolled in marketplace coverage that has been certified comparable to CHIP by the Secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). 9 As of July 2014, HHS has not released guidance defining the requirements for Secretary Certification. This leaves some uncertainty about how these former separate CHIP children will be covered in future (National Academy for State Health Policy, …show more content…
Federal leadership can spur state actions to build stronger primary and preventive child health services and ensure quality and accountability. While state Medicaid and SCHIP programs vary substantially, most states can benefit from federal leadership to define and promote primary and preventive health services, particularly within Medicaid and SCHIP, and would respond to opportunities to build on evidence based programs to strengthen their systems. The American Academy of Pediatrics has established sound guidelines for primary care and well-child visits, and Bright Futures contains many of the tools and resources for incorporating these into practice. The challenge is to support adoption of these best practices so they become routinely available to all children. This goal cannot be achieved without concerted and intentional efforts to incorporate them into Medicaid and SCHIP, without the attendant regulations, policies, and reimbursement systems that support them. The four federal actions discussed here, in addition to those developed in proposed federal legislation, should be part of the deliberations that go into developing health policy legislation in 2009, with SCHIP reauthorization representing a logical place for this action (Bruner, Fitzgerald, Plaza,
Why is federal CHIP financing a current issue? The Affordable Care Act (ACA) extended federal funding for CHIP allotments through federal fiscal year (FFY) 2015. Under current law, states will receive their final federal CHIP allotments in two semi-annual installments with the final …show more content…
The ACA requires all states to have a process for screening children for Medicaid eligibility if federal CHIP funding runs out. Those that are ineligible for Medicaid must then be enrolled in marketplace coverage that has been certified comparable to CHIP by the Secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). 9 As of July 2014, HHS has not released guidance defining the requirements for Secretary Certification. This leaves some uncertainty about how these former separate CHIP children will be covered in future (National Academy for State Health Policy, …show more content…
Federal leadership can spur state actions to build stronger primary and preventive child health services and ensure quality and accountability. While state Medicaid and SCHIP programs vary substantially, most states can benefit from federal leadership to define and promote primary and preventive health services, particularly within Medicaid and SCHIP, and would respond to opportunities to build on evidence based programs to strengthen their systems. The American Academy of Pediatrics has established sound guidelines for primary care and well-child visits, and Bright Futures contains many of the tools and resources for incorporating these into practice. The challenge is to support adoption of these best practices so they become routinely available to all children. This goal cannot be achieved without concerted and intentional efforts to incorporate them into Medicaid and SCHIP, without the attendant regulations, policies, and reimbursement systems that support them. The four federal actions discussed here, in addition to those developed in proposed federal legislation, should be part of the deliberations that go into developing health policy legislation in 2009, with SCHIP reauthorization representing a logical place for this action (Bruner, Fitzgerald, Plaza,