Program objective

The objective of the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) is to provide funds to States to enable them to maintain and expand child health assistance to uninsured, low-income children, and at a state option, low-income pregnant women and legal immigrants, primarily by three methods: (1) operating a separate CHIP program; (2) expanding eligibility for children under the State's Medicaid program; and (3) or operating both a separate CHIP and a Medicaid expansion program. The objective of the Connecting Kids to Coverage (CKC) Outreach and Enrollment Grants is to reduce the number of uninsured children eligible for Medicaid, CHIP and insurance affordability programs who are not enrolled and improve retention of those who are already enrolled. The latest cohort of grants were authorized under Section 3004(a) of the Helping Ensure Access for Little Ones, Toddlers, and Hopeful Youth by Keeping Insurance Delivery Stable Act (referred to as the HEALTHY KIDS Act and included in Pub. L. 115-120). CMS awarded a total of $48 million to eligible entities, including states, local governments, schools, health care providers, community-based public or non-profit organizations, and Indian tribes or tribal consortiums, tribal organizations, urban Indian organizations receiving funds under Title V of the Indian Health Care Improvement Act (25 U.S.C. 1651 et seq.), and Indian Health Service providers. These grants support outreach strategies aimed at increasing enrollment of eligible, but not enrolled,children in Medicaid and CHIP, emphasizing outreach and enrollment activities tailored to communities where eligible children and families reside and enlisting community leaders and programs that serve eligible children and families. These grants also fund activities designed to help families understand application procedures and health coverage opportunities under Medicaid and CHIP. The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) also made awards of $6 million exclusively for Indian health care providers and tribal entities to conduct outreach and enrollment activities aimed at American Indians and Alaska Natives. Indian health care providers and tribal entities were permitted to apply for either or both funding opportunities as long as the work described was different in each proposal.