Gearing Up for the Citizenship Documentation Requirement in CHIP: Successful Strategies from Medicaid

The Children’s Health Insurance Program Reauthorization Act of 2009 (CHIPRA) extends the citizenship documentation requirement in Medicaid to CHIP. Beginning on January 1, 2010, CHIP programs were required to verify the citizenship and identity of new applicants and existing enrollees. States need to decide whether to verify citizenship and identify using the procedures currently employed in Medicaid or to verify citizenship and identity using a new automated data matching process developed by the Social Security Administration (SSA) pursuant to section 211 of CHIPRA.  Even states that decide to implement the new SSA option may need to use the current verification process for children not found in the SSA database.
 
This web seminar focused on the successful strategies state Medicaid programs have developed to verify citizenship and identity since Congress first mandated that they do so.  Speakers provided an overview of the previous documentation requirement, including changes to it made by CHIPRA; discussed successful strategies that different Medicaid programs across the country have used to verify citizenship and identity of children; and explored in-depth how two states have worked to minimize the burden imposed on both states and families.
 
Speakers
Donna Cohen Ross, Director of Outreach, Center on Budget and Policy Priorities
Karen Packer, Senior Policy Analyst
Mary Wood, Office Chief,Washington Health and Recovery Services Administration
Sarah deLone,Program Director, NASHP