Kansas, Oregon CHIP Beneficiaries Often Leave Program Before Guaranteed Eligibility Expires, Study Finds

Children enrolled in CHIP programs in Kansas and Oregon often do not remain in the program for the full time of their guaranteed eligibility, leaving some uninsured for a period of time and vulnerable to a discontinuity in care, a study from the Child Health Insurance Research Initiative has found. Researchers also found that a "significant" number of children had transferred from CHIP to Medicaid. The findings are the first released by the initiative, a set of research projects sponsored by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, the David and Lucile Packard Foundation and the Health Resources and Services Administration. Researchers, who presented the study at the third annual meeting of Child Health Services Researchers, found the following:

• In Kansas, 34.5% of CHIP beneficiaries did not remain in the program for a full 12 months. In Oregon, 18% left before the end of a six-month coverage period.
• In both states, about half of the beneficiaries who completed their first eligibility period did not re-enroll.
• One-third of Kansas beneficiaries and 45% of those in Oregon who left the program before their eligibility was up moved "directly" from CHIP to Medicaid, and the remaining children either obtained private coverage or became uninsured.
• Seventy-four percent of Kansas CHIP beneficiaries and 54% of all Oregon beneficiaries were enrolled in Medicaid before CHIP.