West Virginia Plans Outreach Campaign To Boost CHIP Enrollment; May Lose Federal Funds

Despite the West Virginia's aggressive campaign to publicize its CHIP program, many families enrolled in the program are "letting their ... policies lapse," the Charleston Daily Mail reports. According to Sharon Carte, the program's director, "Roughly half the people they send renewal forms to do not renew" (Tranum, Charleston Daily Mail, 6/28). To combat enrollment problems, the state has launched an advertising campaign to boost enrollment, including a series of ads that will air on 17 radio stations and a July television spot featuring country singer Kathy Mattea. During a door-to-door campaign to promote the program, Gov. Bob Wise (D) said, "We're working to get the message out, but our goal is to try to get every eligible child in West Virginia enrolled, and we've got a ways to go" ( AP/Charleston Gazette, 6/28). To increase the renewal rates, Carte has suggested mailing "pre-printed" forms that families would only have to change if information had changed since the time they enrolled. Carte also said the agency planned to eliminate some of the "glitches" in the enrollment process. For example, some families never received notification that their children were enrolled (Tranum, Charleston Daily Mail, 6/28). As of June 25, 20,900 children were enrolled in the CHIP program, up from 18,400 in March.

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With such a large drop-out rate and generally low CHIP enrollment, West Virginia's CHIP program is "in danger" of failing to spend its entire federal appropriation, the AP/Charleston Gazette reports. The program is on track to use only $13 million of the $23 million available to be spent by Sept. 30 or return the funds to the federal government. Carte said the program is "playing catch up" because of the "slow start" during Gov. Cecil Underwood's (R) administration. Carte added that many states are facing similar situations because of the "short time frame" to spend the funding. Last year, West Virginia would have lost $12 million, but Congress granted a reprieve. State Health and Human Resources Secretary Paul Nusbaum that the Wise administration should not be blamed for the shortage. "If next September comes around and we still haven't spent the money, it would be fair to criticize us," Nusbaum said (AP/Charleston Gazette, 6/28).