The Children’s Health Insurance Program Reauthorization Act of 2009 (CHIP) was passed into law February 4, 2009. This is a very large bill that was finalized quickly, and has many changes to it since 1997 when it was called the State Children’s Health Insurance Program (SCHIP). CHIP is a matching program, with the Federal government and the State of Florida both contributing funds.

At this time we have teams studying this bill to determine potential impacts, but can provide you the following high level summary of the largest changes:

• It extends CHIP authorization to September 30, 2013.
• States must adopt at least 5 of the 8 enrollment and retention provisions, one of which is the elimination of an asset or resource test. The child’s parent or guardian can declare assets by simply signing a document. These are effective April 1, 2009.
• States are allowed to provide CHIP coverage of pregnancy related assistance to low-income women who are pregnant, subject to certain conditions.
• Medicaid and CHIP coverage of legal aliens who have resided in the country for less than 5 years.
• Dental care is required to be included in CHIP coverage effective October 1, 2009.
• Mental health parity requirement is established for CHIP plans that provide mental health or substance use disorder benefits. They cannot be more restrictive than the other medical services.

We encourage you to read further details. Here is a link to the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation’s summary, and the ModernHealthcare.com website to get you started. We will keep you informed.