Pennsylvania Legal Aid Network Receives $267,500 Grant to Provide Training on New Program Requirtements

Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Kathleen Sebelius announced nearly $32 million in grants for efforts to identify and enroll children eligible for Medicaid and the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP). The Connecting Kids to Coverage Outreach and Enrollment Grants were awarded to 41 state agencies, community health centers, school-based organizations and non-profit groups in 22 states; two grantees are multistate organizations. 

Among the grantees is Pennsylvania Legal Aid Network, Inc. which received a grant of $267,500 to provide training on the availability of health coverage, enrollment and renewal and the new program standards established by the Affordable Care Act.

“Today’s grants will ensure that more children across the nation have access to the quality health care they need,” said Secretary Sebelius. “We are drawing from successful children’s health coverage outreach and enrollment efforts to help promote enrollment this fall in Medicaid and the new Health Insurance Marketplace.”

Efforts to streamline Medicaid and CHIP enrollment and renewal practices, combined with robust outreach activities, have helped reduce the number of uninsured children.  Since 2008, 1.7 million children have gained coverage and the rate of uninsured children has dropped to 6.6 percent in 2012.

Grants were made in five focus areas:

• Engaging schools in outreach, enrollment and retention activities (9 awards);
   
• Reducing health coverage disparities by reaching out to subgroups of children that are less likely to have health coverage (8 awards);
   
• Streamlining enrollment for individuals participating in other public benefit programs such as nutritional or other assistance programs (3 awards);
   
• Improving application assistance resources to provide high quality, reliable Medicaid and CHIP enrollment and renewal services in local communities (13 awards); and
   
• Training communities to help families understand the new application and enrollment system and to deliver effective assistance to families with children eligible for Medicaid or CHIP (8 awards).

These awards are part of the $140 million included in the Affordable Care Act and the Children’s Health Insurance Program Reauthorization Act (CHIPRA) of  2009 for enrollment and renewal outreach.

The grant to Pennsylvania Legal Aid Network, Inc. was provided under Focus Area 5, Conducting training to equip communities to help families understand the new application and enrollment system and to deliver effective assistance to families with children eligible for Medicaid and CHIP.

Pennsylvania Legal Aid Network will provide training on the availability of health coverage, enrollment and renewal and the new program standards established by the Affordable Care Act. This training will be designed to ensure eligible children and their families apply, enroll and stay enrolled in Medicaid and CHIP.

The training will be delivered in three influential family-serving professional sectors that regularly serve low and moderate income families: legal service programs, juvenile and family courts, and the health care provider community. Deliver of service under the grant will be coordinated by the Pennsylvania Health Law Project and Community Legal Services of Philadelphia. 

The grants will build on the Secretary’s Connecting Kids to Coverage Challenge to find and enroll all eligible children and support outreach strategies that have been shown to be successful.

Grant amounts range from $190,000 to $1 million. For a list of grantees, please visit: http://www.cms.gov/Newsroom/MediaReleaseDatabase/Fact-Sheets/2013-Fact-Sheets-Items/2013-07-02.html.

Learn more at http://www.insurekidsnow.gov/.