June 25th, 2009

On Saturday, the state Insurance Department announced that it has drafted a Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) State Plan Amendment, creating changes to the program.  The changes will be to the Children’s Health Insurance Program Reauthorization Act of 2009 (CHIPRA), which reauthorized the CHIP.

The amendments to CHIPRA will address new mandates, and implement options that the Federal CHIP law recently authorized to be made to state CHIPs.

Before the changes can be made, the state will have to submit the State Plan Amendment to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, telling them how the changes will be implemented.

Among the changes already mandated by CHIPRA are that newborn children are automatically enrolled in CHIP for 1 year if the children is born to a targeted low-income woman who was receiving pregnancy-related assistance through CHIP when the child was born.

CHIPRA options authorized by the Federal government that PA will pursue include:

- Adding more low-income pregnant women to the targeted population

- Implementing Express Lane Eligibility to enroll children

The Insurance Dept. will be presending the CHIP State Plan Amendment to the Medical Assistance Advisory Committee this morning.  They’re accepting comments on the amendment through June 27, to be sent to:

Peter J. Adams, Deputy Commissioner for CHIP and adultBasic, Insurance Dept., Office of CHIP and adultBasic, 333 Market St., Lobby, Harrisburg PA 17120, or RA-PA-INS-Benefit-Pr@state.pa.us

Check out the full CHIP State Plan Amendment.