Ohio gets $10.8 million for getting low-income kids health care

Source: The Columbus Dispatch, OhioDec.mini storage 30--Ohio's has been awarded a $10.8 million bonus from federal regulators for enrolling low-income children in tax-funded health care.Nearly 87 percent of eligible children are covered by SCHIP, the State Children's Health Insurance Program available to youngsters with household incomes under 200 percent of the federal poverty level or $47,100 a year for a family of four.That's above the national participation rate of 82 percent, according to federal figures.Ohio was among 23 states receiving a total of $307 million in performance bonuses this year."States are working hard to ensure children get access to the health coverage they need," said Marilyn Tavenner, administrator for the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services which announced the awards today."We are pleased to provide financial support to reward states that are reducing enrollment barriers and are connecting kids to coverage."Ohio, for instance, has allowed the use of the same forms for applications and renewals, permits 12 months of continuous eligibility and has eliminated in-person interviewsself storageand asset tests in some cases.Federal regulators say such efforts have paid off. Recent U.S. Census data show that uninsured rates for children declined from 8.6 percent in 2009 to 7.5 percent in 2011. In Ohio, 95 percent of children have private or tax-funded health coverage.Created in 1997, SCHIP is a joint federal-state program for children whose families have incomes that are modest but not low enough to qualify for Medicaid, the state health-care program for the poor and disabled. States set eligibility limits and other criteria within federal guidelines, with the federal government paying 70 percent of coverage costs and states picking up the rest.The program is widely credited with reducing the number of uninsured children in Ohio and across the nation in recent years.The federal bonuses help states by offsetting the costs of insuring the lowest income children and encouraging them to adopt improvements to CHIP.@ccandiskyCopyright: ___ (c)2013 The Columbus Dispatch (Columbus, Ohio) Visit The Columbus Dispatch (Columbus, Ohio) at .dispatch.com Distributed by MCT Information Services迷你倉