Reforms to Virginia’s CHIP Program Bring Increased Enrollment

The Washington Post on Jan. 30 examined how recent changes to children's health insurance programs in Virginia have increased enrollment of children in the Family Access to Medical Insurance Security plan, the state's CHIP program, and Medicaid. As of Jan. 24, FAMIS enrollment was 50,728 children, up from 36,134 two years ago, and Medicaid enrollment was 283,666, up from 250,103 children one year ago, according to Gov. Mark Warner (D). Changes implemented by the Virginia Department of Medical Assistance Services have made it easier to enroll children in public health programs, the Post reports. For instance, the department now uses a single enrollment form for FAMIS and Medicaid and has revised eligibility rules to allow all children in a family to participate in one program. Warner said "You needed a PhD or a case manager assigned to you to fill out the old forms. ... [W]e took a program that was user-unfriendly and made it user-friendly. The best evidence of that are the new enrollment numbers." The Post reports that under the old system, people would apply for FAMIS, but then find out they qualified for Medicaid, or vice versa, and would not complete another application process out of frustration. "We were losing 80% of the referrals because of that," VDMAS Deputy Director Cynthia Jones said. Virginia has had to return $56 million in federal funds over the last two years because FAMIS has not met enrollment projections. Linda Nablo, director of the state Division of Child Health Insurance Program, said, "It's this administration's intention to get to the point where we're not giving back any money" (Washington Post, 1/30).