Thirty years ago, Highmark enrolled the first Pennsylvania child in the Children's Health Insurance Program (CHIP).
Now, one of the country's largest Blues plans is looking to get the word out about how critical CHIP could be as flexibilities introduced under the public health emergency unwind. Diana Kobus, CHIP program director at Highmark, told Fierce Healthcare that in the state virtually all children qualify for coverage under CHIP if they need it.
"As parents and families are going through redeterminations, trying to determine, 'What kind of coverage am I going to end up with as we go through this?'—CHIP is there," she said.
Kobus said her team is working with Highmark's Medicaid arm to ensure people going through the redetermination process understand that CHIP may be an option if they need to rethink their coverage. She said that if a child does not qualify for Medicaid, they're eligible for CHIP, so the program offers a comprehensive option for parents who may not have access to family coverage through an employer.
There are multiple subsidy levels within CHIP in Pennsylvania, so families with lower incomes could end up paying nothing for the coverage, Kobus said. And CHIP covers a wide variety of services for children, from primary care to behavioral health to virtual health, she said.
"A parent could make, I like to joke, $10 million a year and their child could still qualify for CHIP," she said.
Kobus said that many families enroll their children in CHIP and discover benefits they didn't expect, like access to a 24-hour nurse line that will assist with triaging concerns.
In Pennsylvania, because CHIP is decoupled from Medicaid, the program is going through a similar redetermination process to Medicaid as families renew coverage. It was also under the same continuous coverage mandate during the COVID-19 pandemic, Kobus said, which ensured that families had access to critical services at the height of the virus' spread.
"During the pandemic, we were here providing coverage, no interruptions, letting families continue to use their coverage, even if they weren't able to pay," she said.
Over the past three years, enrollment in CHIP has declined as Medicaid enrollment swelled, and with the redetermination window underway, Kobus said the team is expecting to welcome many families back into the program.
"We're excited to see more children returning to the program," she said. "It's really near and dear to my heart, what we're able to do and how we're able to support our kids, families and communities."