children's health insurance;
covered services
DP |
Committee on Health |
|
|
DP |
Committee on Financial Institutions &
Insurance |
|
|
DPA/SE |
Committee on Appropriations |
|
|
DPA |
Caucus and COW |
|
|
X |
As Transmitted To The Governor |
|
SB
1087 allows school districts to perform outreach for the Children’s Health
Insurance Program (CHIP) administered through the Arizona Health Care Cost
Containment System (AHCCCS).
The bill expands coverage for eye examinations, non-emergency transportation and mental health services. SB 1087 decreases the six-month bare requirement to three months and requires that AHCCCS develop rules to grant hardship exemptions.
The
Children’s Health Insurance Program was created in 1997 to provide health
insurance coverage for uninsured low-income children under the age of nineteen.
Primary funding for CHIP is provided through a federal grant and state-matching
tobacco tax monies. As of March 1,
2001, 103,618 children have been approved for health coverage through CHIP
(47,015 for KidsCare and 56,603 for Medicaid.)
CHIP
members pay premiums if they are at 150%-200% of the federal poverty
level. Children are terminated from the
program if their premiums are not paid for two consecutive months. AHCCCS estimates that 4,856 children were
terminated last year from CHIP.
According to AHCCCS, an average of 117 children are denied enrollment each month due to the voluntary loss of insurance provision for eligibility. The reason for this provision was to eliminate the incentive for parents to drop insurance coverage to enroll children into CHIP.
Provisions
·
Requires AHCCCS to adopt rules to prescribe
circumstances for hardship exemptions to premium requirements.
·
Allows school districts to perform outreach for
the CHIP program administered through AHCCCS.
The outreach activities shall not reduce or interfere with classroom
instruction time and stipulates that outreach activities not be performed by a
school district during regularly scheduled classroom hours.
·
Requires AHCCCS to adopt rules to allow them to
waive part of or the entire premium if a child is chronically ill.
·
Changes the requirement that children have not
voluntarily dropped insurance coverage from six months to three months as a
provision for eligibility into CHIP.
This provision may be waived for any child who is seriously or
chronically ill. AHCCCS must establish
rules to define conditions that constitute a serious or chronic illness.
·
Expands services to include multiple eye
examinations and prescriptive lenses as needed. The program currently only
provides one eye examination and one set of prescriptive lenses each year.
·
Adds medically necessary non-emergency
transportation to the list of covered services. Only medically necessary emergency transportation is covered
under the current program.
·
Removes visitation limits for impatient and
outpatient behavioral health services and stipulates that the services must be
the same as the least restrictive health benefits coverage plan for behavioral
health services as state employees.
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45th
Legislature
First
Regular Session 2 May 8, 2001
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