$10 Million In Grants Aimed At Enrolling American Indian, Alaska Native Kids In Health Care To Be Awarded

Main Category: Pediatrics / Children's Health
Also Included In: Medicare / Medicaid / SCHIP;  Health Insurance / Medical Insurance
Article Date: 20 Nov 2009 - 16:00 PST

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HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius announced the availability of up to $10 million in grants to help reach American Indian and Alaska Native (AI/AN) children who qualify for, but are not yet enrolled, in Medicaid and the Children's Health Insurance Program (CHIP).

These new grants are part of a broader effort to find and enroll uninsured children who are eligible for Medicaid or CHIP but not enrolled. The Children's Health Insurance Program Reauthorization Act of 2009 (CHIPRA) set aside $100 million for fiscal years 2009-2013 expressly to help find and enroll eligible uninsured children, including $10 million specifically for Indian health providers.

As called for in CHIPRA, grants will be awarded by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) to applicants whose outreach, enrollment and retention efforts will target geographic areas with high rates of eligible but uninsured American Indian and Alaska Native children, who often live in isolated areas and are uninsured at higher-than-average rates.

"American Indian children are often uninsured, although many are eligible for Medicaid and CHIP," Secretary Sebelius said. "These grants will help Tribes and Indian health providers reach out to children and families to ensure more children get the health care they need."

Grants will be awarded to applicants that will be able to demonstrate increases in enrollment and improved retention of children already in Medicaid and CHIP. Grantees will report to CMS the number of new enrollees and those who retained coverage that are directly attributable to the grant activities. Grantees will also report activities they believe were the most effective in finding, enrolling and maintaining coverage for eligible children.

"States have been effective in enrolling over 28 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, the director of the CMS Center for Medicaid and State Operations. "We are looking forward to innovative grant proposals that will put new outreach, enrollment and renewal systems in place to ensure that uninsured Indian children get enrolled and stay enrolled for as long as they are eligible."

Applications are due by Jan. 15, 2010, and the grants will be awarded on April 15. Grants will be available to:

- The Indian Health Service;
- Tribes and Tribal organizations operating a health program; and,
- Urban Indian organizations operating a health program.

For more information about the outreach and enrollment grants, go to http://www.cms.hhs.gov/CHIPRA. Questions about the grants may be directed to the CHIPRA grants mailbox AIANCHIPRAOUTREACHGRANTS@cms.hhs.gov

General information about CHIP can be found at http://www.insurekidsnow.gov.

Source
HHS