The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services has awarded $306 million to 23 states for streamlining CHIP application processes and increasing enrollment and retention, as part of the five year performance bonus program started in 2009.
Increasing access to CHIP insurance has been "really one of the department's top priorities," said Cindy Mann, CMS deputy administrator and director of the Center for Medicaid and CHIP Service, in a conference call. "For parents, children's coverage provides a dose of security."
Unlike insurance trends for US adults, the uninsured rate for children has been on the decline, with 85 percent of eligible children enrolled in CHIP in 2010, compared to 81.7 percent in 2008, according to the Urban Institute.
The Children's Health Insurance Reauthorization Act of 2009, or CHIPRA, included the performance payment program to states, in an effort to make enrollment and retention easier for eligible children and their families.
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To qualify for the bonus payments, state CHIP and Medicaid programs had to adopt five of eight enrollment and retention provisions, including removing in-person application requirements, implementing automatic renewal, reducing asset verification requirements, allowing enrollment using data submitted to Medicaid or other public assistance programs and implementing presumptive eligibility programs for providers.
The 2012 payments range from $1.5 million for Idaho to $45 million for Colorado.
All of the 23 states had to increase their CHIP enrollment as part of the bonus criteria, and 16 states increased enrollment more than 10 percent above the baseline.
"The more children they enroll, the higher the bonus," Mann said.
As part of the performance bonus program, which has one year left under the statute, states were encouraged to adopt more than five enrollment-boosting measures.
Colorado, for instance, implemented electronic administrative renewal and "express lane enrollment" that determines CHIP eligibility based on data submitted for school lunch applications.
South Carolina "had early success using SNAP data," Mann said, "and they're now using it to get eligible children to get enrolled for the first time."
The 23 states awarded performance bonuses include: Alabama, Alaska, Colorado, Connecticut, Georgia, Idaho, Illinois, Iowa, Kansas, Maryland, Michigan, Montana, New Jersey, New Mexico, North Carolina, North Dakota, Ohio, Oregon, South Carolina, Utah, Virginia, Washington and Wisconsin.