Covering Kids & Families of Indiana Newsletter
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Children's Commission Endorses Immigrant Coverage Change
At the most recent meeting of the Commission for Improving the Status of Children in Indiana, members voted in unanimous support of ending the 5-year waiting period for immigrant children and pregnant women. This waiting period dictates that lawfully residing immigrants who would otherwise qualify for Medicaid or the Children's Health Insurance Program (CHIP) must wait 5-year after immigrating to the United States before they are able to be covered by those programs.
A federal permission through the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services has existed since 2009 that allows eliminating this waiting period for children and pregnant women, and a majority of states have already opted to do so. With the waiting period in place, these individuals often rely on emergency-only Medicaid. This limited version of Medicaid does not cover preventative care, prenatal or postpartum care, childhood vaccinations, developmental screenings, or other non-emergent care.
In a Commission presentation leading to the endorsement Mark Fairchild, Director of Policy & Communication for Covering Kids & Families of Indiana, noted that the uninsured rate for lawfully present immigrants is 26% nationwide and 17% for children, more than three times the uninsured rate of the non-immigrant U.S. population. Eliminating the waiting period could allow over 6000 immigrant children and pregnant women to gain coverage through CHIP or Medicaid in Indiana.
This endorsement of the commission is an important first step in eliminating the waiting period, but legislation will still be needed in order to appropriate funding and make minor changes to the Indiana Code.
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Indiana Selected for NASHP Learning Collaborative
As state leaders look at lessons learned from the pandemic and seek to modernize public health systems, methods to collaborate across sectors, meaningfully engage communities, and align efforts with health systems are being examined. The National Academy for State Health Policy (NASHP), with support from the Commonwealth Fund, has announced an effort to convene cross-agency state teams for a one-year learning collaborative.
NASHP will support participating states in developing action plans for leveraging and integrating data systems, effectively engaging multi-sector partners to advance public health goals, and expanding the reach and impact of place-based strategies to address community-identified needs. The states selected to participate in the learning collaborative are Indiana, Arkansas, Michigan and Rhode Island.
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Coverage Innovations Discussed at State of Coverage Summit
The State of Coverage Policy Summit, focusing on the theme of Innovations in Eligibility and Enrollment, featured a discussion on new and novel approaches to improve enrollment in programs like Medicaid, CHIP and HIP. Summit keynote speaker Jennifer Wagner, Director of Medicaid Eligibility and Enrollment with the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, kicked off the summit by providing a detailed assessment of the challenges and opportunities ahead.
A panel of experts responded to Wagner's presentation by discussing nuanced elements of health coverage, housing, medical debt, food insecurity, inequity and other factors impacting Hoosier health. Summit Panelists included Andrew Bradley, Policy Director - Prosperity Indiana; Emily Bryant, Executive Director - Feeding Indiana's Hungry; and Erin Macey, Ph.D., Senior Researcher & Director of Advocacy - Indiana University Maternal & Child Health Initiative. This annual event is proudly hosted by Covering Kids & Families of Indiana and drew over 200 registrations this year. For those who were unable to attend the live event, a recording is available at the link below.
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Family Glitch is Fixed!
When the Marketplace was launched in 2013, an implementation rule determined that employer coverage was affordable based on the cost for the employee only. Even if employer coverage for additional family members was unaffordable, the family was unable to qualify for Marketplace premium tax credits. This was called the “family glitch”.
A new rule effective December 12, 2022 addresses this problem by determining eligibility for tax credits based on insurance affordability (9.12% for 2023) for each individual family member. Families of low-paid workers, small business employees, workers in the service industry and children are expected to benefit the most from this change.
In families where a spouse and children are now eligible for Marketplace coverage, careful consideration will need to be given to if the savings from enrolling the spouse and children in a Marketplace plan offset the potential costs of paying two monthly premiums and having two separate deductibles and out-of-pocket maximums.
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Marketplace Window Shopping Opens
Ahead of the start of Marketplace open enrollment, consumers can preview plans for the 2023 coverage year on www.healthcare.gov. Plans can either be viewed at full price or with estimated costs if a set of basic questions are answered. The option to preview plans is made available to help consumers weigh their options and prepare for the upcoming open enrollment period.
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Marketplace Outreach
Open Enrollment for Marketplace coverage runs November 1, 2022 – January 15, 2023. Here are several tools from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) to help with your education and outreach.
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“Event in a Box” includes a fillable flier, fact sheets, brochure, conference cards, poster, and Marketplace application check list.
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Theme weeks of action can help focus outreach on specific priority populations and topics.
- Order materials directly from CMS here.
- Additional resources available here.
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News from the Indiana School Health Network
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CALL FOR PROPOSALS & THEME ANNOUNCEMENT
The Indiana School Health Network (ISHN) is inviting school health professionals and advocates to submit proposals to present a session at the 2023 Indiana School Health Network Conference on June 14-15, 2023. The conference will be in person and will be held at the Embassy Suites Plainfield Hotel. This year's theme is "School Health: Connecting the Pieces."
All sessions are 60 minutes long, including Q&A and evaluation. Proposals will be selected based on the speaker's knowledge and expertise on the subject. Proposals of interest include but are not limited to the following:
- Policies, practices, or programs that promote cross-sector collaboration
- Managing health & behavioral health conditions that affect educational achievement, especially proposals on chronic diseases, suicide and substance use disorder
- Role of school-based health centers in school health
- Emerging trends in early childhood education and health
- Promising practices advancing diversity, equity, and inclusion
- Neuroscience-based tools to transform challenging childhood behaviors
- Care of children with special health care needs in school
- Best practices addressing ethics and boundaries
- Policies and legislation that advance school health outcomes for all students
- Effective Navigator outreach and enrollment practices for healthcare coverage
- Innovative Whole School, Whole Community, Whole Child (WSCC) Model implementation
Special consideration will be given to proposals focused on alignment and coordination of services and resources, social justice in education, social-emotional learning and social influencers of health and education.
Deadline for submission is January 13, 2023
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Help Schools Kick the Nic!
Help Schools Kick the Nic! is a training provided by Smoke Free Indy to help school staff, community partners, and prevention advocates better understand the vaping epidemic in schools. The training shows ways schools can empower students to fight the nicotine habit. Smoke Free Indy is dedicated to reducing secondhand smoke, tobacco usage and tobacco initiation through education, prevention, and advocacy in Marion County.
Smoke Free Indy will be hosting a hybrid training on November 9th from 10:00am-1:00pm at the Indiana Interchurch Center in Indianapolis or participants can join online. The cost is free to attend, and anyone can participate.
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Unwinding Resource Website
Georgetown University Health Policy Institute Center for Children and Families has a website dedicated to the Unwinding of Medicaid coverage once the federal public health emergency ends. It includes their 50 state tracker, recordings of their webinar series, blog posts and more.
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Recorded Marketplace Summit Sessions from Young Invincibles'
Sessions from the Young Invincibles’ recent Marketplace 2022 Outreach and Enrollment Summit are now available.
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Resources for Navigators and Assisters to Support Enrollment
Hosted by the Georgetown University Center on Health Insurance Reforms November 3rd at 2:00PM.
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Online & On-Demand Navigator Pre-Certification & Continuing Education Courses
Covering Kids & Families of Indiana invites you to view our online and on-demand Navigator Pre-Certification & Continuing Education Courses. Each course is approved by the Indiana Department of Insurance. The Pre-Certification Course is for those hoping to become a certified Indiana Navigator, and the Continuing Education Course is for current Indiana Navigators. There is no charge for these courses.
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Enrollment Trends
Total Membership increased again in September. With 2,113,659 members, there were 7,607, or 0.36%, more members in September 2022 than in August 2022. September was the eighth month in a row where total membership was over 2 million.
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© 2022 Covering Kids & Families of Indiana | All Rights Reserved
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