Medicaid and CHIP Policy Clinic

Medicaid and CHIP: How low-income Utahns get health coverage.

Federal reform uses different mechanisms to ensure all Americans have access to healthcare coverage.  For low-income Americans, the reforms have turned to Medicaid to provide that coverage.  As a result, between now and January 2014, Utah’s Medicaid program must radically expand from serving mainly children and people with disabilities, to a program who serves all Utahns in households earning less than 133% of poverty ($29,330 for a family of four).

As Utah Medicaid enters this period of great transition, the Utah Health Policy Project is committed to working with policy leaders, providers, and the community to make sure the program comes out on the other side meeting the following goals:  

• Medicaid provides its recipients with timely access to all needed care, and that care is of high quality;
  
• From the eligibility proves to care delivery, the program is run as efficiently and cost-effectively as possible;
  
• Medicaid has sustainable and on-going sources of funding;
  

To those ends, in 2010-2011 UHPP is working on the following initiatives: 

• Developing, implementing, and strengthening proven cost containment initiatives like the family planning services state option, accountable care organizations, preferred drug lists, and medical home;
  
•  Remove barriers to enrollment by eliminating the Medicaid asset test and removing the 5-year waiting period that legal permanent resident children and pregnant women must wait before enrolling in Medicaid or CHIP.
  
• Ensuring Medicaid provides coverage for all medically necessary services, including dental, vision, physical therapy, occupational therapy, and audiology care. 
  
• Making sure Medicaid works in harmony with other components of health reform (e.g. Eligibility processes on the Utah Health Insurance Exchange work in tandem with Medicaid eligibility).

• Monthly Meeting: Agendas, minutes, and related meeting materials

• Utah Medicaid Partnership: Agendas, minutes and related meeting materials