Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius has announced the availability of up to $40 million in grants to help reach families whose children qualify, but are not yet enrolled in, state Medicaid and Children’s Health Insurance Programs.
Sebelius was joined for the announcement by Colorado Gov. Bill Ritter, whose state has been active in the effort to provide health insurance coverage to more children.
“We know there are millions of children who are eligible for coverage but don’t utilize their state healthcare programs,” said Sebelius. “These grants will help community organizations (and) tribal organizations, as well as states and local governments, reach out to children and families to ensure more children get the healthcare they need and deserve.”
The funds are part of the new Children’s Health Insurance Program Reauthorization Act (CHIPRA) that President Barack Obama signed into law as one of his first acts upon assuming office.
“We’ve made covering kids a top priority in Colorado. Working in partnership with community-based organizations like schools, childcare centers and faith-based groups, we have dramatically increased outreach and enrollment efforts and those efforts are paying off,” said Ritter. “Since 2007, we’ve enrolled 67,000 more children in Medicaid and Colorado’s children’s health program – a 27 percent increase. This grant opportunity will be a great help to states and communities that are working hard to ensure kids and families are getting the healthcare they need.”
The new law provides $100 million for outreach campaigns aimed at reducing the number of low-income, uninsured children. The grants to states and organizations will ultimately total $80 million, with the remaining funds going to other outreach efforts specified by the law. The grants will be administered by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.
“States have been effective in enrolling over 30 million children in Medicaid and more than 7 million children in CHIP, but there are still millions of uninsured, low-income children who are not enrolled in these programs even though they are eligible,” said Cindy Mann, director of the CMS Center for Medicaid and State Operations. “We are looking forward to innovative grant proposals ranging from grass roots efforts to reach eligible but uninsured children to technology-driven initiatives to modernize and streamline enrollment systems.”
Applications submitted electronically are due by Aug. 6, 2009. Applications submitted by mail are due by Aug. 10, 2009. Grants will be awarded by Sept. 30, 2009.
To apply for the grants, applicants must be at least one of the following:
- A state;
- A local government;
- An Indian tribe or tribal consortium or other tribal organization;
- A federal health safety net organization;
- A national, state, local or community-based public or nonprofit private organization, including those that use community health workers;
- A certified faith-based organization or consortium;
- An elementary or secondary school; or
- A consortium composed of two or more of these entities.