Tag: CHIP

Medicaid And CHIP Eligibility Check Will Return

As President Joe Biden is expected to end the nation's public health emergency later this year, pandemic related relief programs are going back to previous levels.

As President Joe Biden is expected to end the nation’s public health emergency later this year, pandemic related relief programs are going back to previous levels.

More than 200,000 West Virginia children and their parents will have to renew their membership in Medicaid and the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP).

Those enrolled in Medicaid and CHIP should prepare for the shift.

Most children covered with CHIP will still qualify for the health insurance program.

West Virginia parents who still qualify should receive a renewal letter in the mail. Parents should fill it out and send it back quickly to avoid delays.

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services said residents who currently have health insurance with Medicaid or CHIP should check their mail and make sure the state has the correct contact information.

Most Medicaid eligibility and all CHIP eligibility is based on income and the current federal poverty level.

Find more information on eligibility and enrollment requirements in West Virginia, visit this link.

Bill Passes House to Fund CHIP

The U.S. House of Representatives passed legislation to extend the Children’s Health Insurance Program for five more years. All three of West Virginia’s representatives voted in favor of the bill.

Funding for the Children’s Health Insurance Program, more commonly known as CHIP, expired on September 30th due to Congressional inaction. CHIP provides insurance to 9 million children, including more than 20,000 West Virginians. 

A bill to fund the program has been languishing for several weeks in the Senate.

The House voted along party lines to extend CHIP funding through September of 2022. The bill also contains two years of funding for community health centers, whose funding similarly lapsed at the end of September.

However, the House version of the bill calls for extending funding to CHIP by charging higher Medicare premiums to seniors earning more than 500-thousand-dollars, and redirecting money from the Affordable Care Act’s prevention and public health fund to community health centers – a proposal that has been met with severe criticism from House Democrats.

The bill now goes to the Senate, but is not expected to pass as is.

Appalachia Health News is a project of West Virginia Public Broadcasting, with support from Marshall Health, Charleston Area Medical Center and WVU Medicine.

Experts Gather in Morgantown for Children's Health Policy Summit

Experts and advocates gathered in Morgantown yesterday for the West Virginia University Children’s Health Policy Summit to talk about policy issues related to children’s health care.

 

 

The event was organized primarily as a celebration of the Children’s Health Insurance Plan, more commonly known as CHIP, which over the last 20 years has reduced the childhood uninsured rates in West Virginia to approximately 3 percent.

“We talk a lot about what happens when people or children are connected with health services when they’re young, but we don’t always talk about what happens in the long-term,” said Lindsey Allen, an assistant professor of health economics and policy at West Virginia University.

“And some of the things we’re seeing are that adults that had Medicaid or CHIP when they were younger end up with much better health status as they age and they also end up with much better childhood achievements and additional economic success.”

But CHIP funding is set to expire on September 30th of this year if Congress doesn’t reauthorize the program.

 

The Senate Finance Committee met yesterday to begin conversations about reauthorization. Rochelle Goodwin, who serves as Senior Associate Vice President for Academic and Public Strategy at West Virginia University said as of late there has been a “seismic shift” in federal health policy.

“We have lots of health care policy questions that are up in the air right now,” she said. “If CHIP is not renewed then states and the federal government need to take a look at what they will do to plug the hole on what has now been a history of about nine million children covered under that program.”

Goodwin said taking a look at how state and federal policies fit together is part of what attendees hope to discuss during the summit. She and Allen both expressed sincere hopes that CHIP would be reauthorized – pointing to not only potentially negative health impacts, but also economic repercussions of reducing access to health care.

“What we’re also seeing with that additional economic success it that people are ending up with higher incomes, which means they’re paying more money into the government pot,” said Allen. “And then we’re also having to spend less in the earned income tax credit that we’re shelling out for these people. So there are a couple different ways that having CHIP and Medicaid access when children are young pay dividends in the long-term.”

About 150 people attended the summit, including former US Secretary for Health and Human Services Sylvia Burwell and former U.S. Senator Jay Rockefeller of West Virginia.

Appalachia Health News is a project of West Virginia Public Broadcasting, with support from the Benedum Foundation, Charleston Area Medical Center and WVU Medicine.

WVU Speakers, Panelists to Examine Child Health Care Policy

West Virginia University plans to host what it’s calling a summit meeting on health care policy for children on Thursday.

Scheduled speakers include former U. S. Sen. John D. Rockefeller IV and former U.S. Dept. of Health and Human Services Secretary and now American University President Sylvia Mathews Burwell.

Panelists will discuss challenges with children’s access to quality and affordable health care, including the 20-year-old Children’s Health Insurance Program, or CHIP, which provides low-cost health coverage to children in families that earn too much money to qualify for Medicaid.

House Passes Bill Transferring Children's Health Insurance Program Operations to DHHR

Since it was created by the legislature in 1998, the Children’s Health Insurance Program known as CHIP has covered thousands of children and teens under age 19. 

It’s proven to be very popular for the state’s working families.  The house considered a senate bill today that would transfer CHIP’s operation from the Department of Administration to the Department of Health and Human Resources.  That was one of the bills up for passage today.

Delegate Don Perdue wasn’t too happy with this switch.

“CHIP is the one agency in the healthcare in the state of West Virginia that has performed magnificently, even through some really tough times,” Perdue said, “Now I understand that the ACA will reduce, or ostensibly has reduced and will continue to reduce the number of folks who will be eligible for that fund. My fear is, absent of the Supreme Court deciding otherwise, that it could go down, and if it goes down, then CHIP’s going to go back up, and it’s going to be given to an agency that I don’t believe is going to be prepared for that great influx. I think that it’s premature to do this. I’ve always felt it’s premature until we know exactly what’s going to happen in terms of the ACA, so for that reason I oppose this bill.”

Senate Bill 262 passed, however, 62 to 37.

House Bill 2391 was up next. This bill is to reduce the amount of days students in early childhood education programs are required to attend per week. This bill would impose a minimum of four days per week instead of five.

Delegate Amanda Pasdon, the House Education Chair, further explained the bill.

“As a bit of background for this bill, and Senate Bill 359, which we passed in the 2013 session, we mandated five, half-day programs for Pre-K, in many of our counties there are already existing four, full-day programs, so what this bill does is allow flexibility in our counties where they’re already meeting the minimum instructional time minutes, but doesn’t force them to go add an additional day and add the additional cost of a bus route and educators and that kind of thing to their expenses, so this offers some flexibility,” explained Pasdon.

House Bill 2391 passed 99 to 0.

The West Virginia State Police will celebrate its 100th anniversary in 2019, so delegates unanimously passed House Bill 2523, which creates a special revenue account to pay for  the commemoration.

Delegate Bob Ashley says the fund would be made up from merchandise sales, appropriations, and donations.

“The superintendent would be authorized to spend funds to offset costs for the hundredth anniversary, including the purchasing of commemorative merchandise, and items or other activities,” Ashley said, “The fund would expire December the 31st, 2019, and any remaining funds would be transferred to the Academy Training Professional Development Fund.”

Delegate Pasdon stood again to explain another bill up for passage; House Bill 2557, creating a Task Force on Prevention of Sexual Abuse of Children, also known as “Erin Merryn’s Law.”

“This bill establishes the Task Force on prevention of sexual abuse of children. The Task Force is intended to share ideas, gather information, communicate best practices, and child welfare and advocacy fields, and ultimately to make recommendations to the legislature and governor regarding state policy for decreasing the incidents of child sexual abuse,” Pasdon explained, “The membership includes representatives from the education, child advocacy, child protection, law enforcement, and legislative sectors, as well as citizen members. Mr. Speaker, I urge passage of the bill.”

House 2527 passed 99 to 0.

Last on the third reading agenda was House Bill 2777; a bill to update the licensing of barbers, cosmetologists, and hairstylists, as well as revising the membership requirements of the Board of Barbers and Cosmetologists.

Delegate Gary Howell, the House Government Organization Chair further explained the bill.

“The bill changes the requirements for memberships on the board to add citizen members representing the general public to improve public safety,” Howell explained, “The bill maintains licensure requirements for estheticians, barber, cosmetologists, hair style, and nail technician, and creates certifications for several crossover practices. The bill also exempts shampoo assistants and hair-braiders from licensing. The bill modifies the authority of the board to mandate specific curriculum and hours of study per class but retains the authority to recommend topics of study.”

House Bill 2777 passed 99 to 0.

Rockefeller Urges Congress to 'Act Now' on CHIP

U.S. Senator Jay Rockefeller chaired his first and, notably, last meeting of the Senate’s Subcommittee on Health Insurance Tuesday afternoon discussing a program he has championed, the Children’s Health Insurance Program or CHIP.

“Creating this program has been one of the most meaningful things I have done in my career in public service,” Rockefeller said in opening the meeting.

“If you’re helping 8 million children across the country, how can that not be important? How can that not be important?”

The Senator says since the bill’s passage in the late ‘90s, the number of uninsured children across the country has been cut in half, from 14 percent to 7 percent.

The program itself is authorized through 2019, but its funding expires in September 2015.

Rockefeller said many state budgets are already being balanced on the assumption that the federal funding will be extended through the life of the program and without it, state governments will likely not be able to continue the programs on their own, leaving millions of children without coverage.

“State legislatures and budget officials are relying on us to act now,” he said. “Colleagues, let’s do our job. Let’s show the American people we can work together to do something good.”

The subcommittee heard testimony from a group of advocates in support of the program, including President of First Focus Bruce Lesley, President of the American Academy of Pediatrics Dr. James Perrin, Director of the Alabama Bureau of Children’s Insurance Cathy Caldwell and President of the American Action Forum Dr. Douglas Holtz-Eakin.

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