Monday, October 26, 2009
CHIP, SCHIP and children's health
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Robin Haldiman
Haldiman is CEO of Child Health Investment Partnership (CHIP) of Roanoke Valley.
As we all try to analyze the health care reform debate, a good question I frequently am asked is, "What is CHIP?" This acronym is often in the news, usually without clarification, in reference to two separate programs. One, SCHIP, is the State Children's Health Insurance Pwrogram; the other, CHIP, is the Child Health Investment Partnership.
Let me first explain SCHIP (commonly abbreviated as CHIP). SCHIP was reauthorized by Congress and signed into law by President Obama in February. It provides increased federal assistance to expand insurance coverage to thousands more children over the next five years. Virginia calls its SCHIP program FAMIS, for Family Access to Medical Insurance Security.
Through the Children's Health Insurance Reauthorization Act, the FAMIS program will receive $175 million in federal block grant (or CHIP) funding in 2009. The federal government pays for 65 percent of Virginia's spending on FAMIS, and the state the 35 percent match.
According to a three-year average estimate from the U.S. Census Bureau, Virginia still has an estimated 167,000 uninsured children ranging in ages from birth to 18. (This figure includes pregnant mothers.)
Insuring kids is crucial to making and keeping our nation and economy healthy. Preventing disease epidemics and catching physical and developmental delays before they become major costs are a no-brainer for economic policy.
National health care reform, if adopted, will increase affordable coverage opportunities and access to care for Virginians, and SCHIP should pave the way to enact sensible reforms and improvements while maximizing federal resources. We have learned many valuable lessons since the enactment of SCHIP in 1997 that can be applied to the bigger picture of health care reform.
So what does this have to do with our local CHIP, or Child Health Investment Partnership of Roanoke Valley? For starters, funding. CHIP is not funded by SCHIP. The SCHIP funding is directed only to states, for the sole purpose of expanding children's Medicaid programs.
CHIP of Roanoke Valley wants children to be insured so that they can go to the doctor and receive the preventive services they deserve. The CHIP program received a grant in 2005 to hire an outreach worker to enroll children in the SCHIP program as a logical first step in providing access to health care.
CHIP of Roanoke Valley's work centers around home visiting that teams nurses, child development and mental health professionals. These teams educate parents on their child's health and development, provide case management for medically needy children (including asthmatics) and incorporate a dental varnishing program applied to new tooth buds.
In addition, CHIP teams link families to counseling, health care and other resources necessary to families for support and empowerment. CHIP of Roanoke Valley strives to move families toward self-sufficiency so that the enrolled children will grow up in families armed with the confidence that their strength can move mountains and their children can grow up to be anything they desire.
This is a far cry from simple health insurance. CHIP takes the foundation of insurance (a payer source) to use the dollars spent to their maximum advantage by cutting emergency room visits by 70 percent, reducing claims for dental care and hospitalizations, and decreasing neo-natal intensive care unit stays.
Perhaps even more beneficial is the reduction of costs to Virginia's school system CHIP offers through developmental programs aimed at kindergarten readiness and parental involvement. Organizations that impact child health and well-being impact our nation's future health and economic well-being.
