February 25, 2010

Maximizing Enrollment for Kids: Results from a Diagnostic Assessment of Enrollment and Retention in Eight States

Jenifer Edwards, Lisa Duchon, Eileen Ellis, Caroline Davis, Rebecca Kellenberg, Jodi Bitterman, Catherine Hess, Alice Weiss, and the Nation Academy for State Health Policy teamed up to write the report titled, Maximizing Enrollment for Kids: Results from a Diagnostic Assessment of Enrollment and Retention in Eight States. The report written in February 2010 discusses the program Maximizing Enrollment for Kids, which was a $15 million national initiative launched in June 2008 to help states increase enrollment and retention of eligible children in Medicaid and CHIP and establish and promote best practices among states. Eight states were selected to participate in this program. The states selected were Alabama, Illinois, Louisiana, Massachusetts, New York, Utah, Virginia, and Wisconsin. Each state received four-year grants of up to $1 million along with targeted technical assistance to help each state achieve transformative, systematic changes in enrollment and retention systems, policies and procedures for children.

In the first year of the program, states completed a diagnostic supplement and structured questionnaire to help map their individual programs. Each state then received an individualized report summarizing the state's key strengths, challenges, and opportunities for improvement for their programs. The results of the assessment revealed a mix of shared and unique strengths and challenges among each grantee state. Contained in this report are highlights from that assessment revealing the states? strengths and challenges, as well as their opportunities, which emerged through processes including improvement and paperwork reduction, data analysis and integration, leadership capacity, agency coordination, and culture, consumer, community partner, and stakeholder engagement.