Amend Floor Amendment No. 65 on page 58 of the amendment
packet by striking everything after "CHIP Eligibility
Determinations for Children" and substituting the following:
"Out of funds appropriated above in Goal C, CHIP Services:
(a) The executive commissioner of the Health and Human
Services Commission ("the commissioner") shall, to the greatest
extent possible, diminish errors which create barriers that wrongly
deny or delay coverage for which a child is eligible.
(1) The commissioner shall ensure that children are
screened simultaneously for eligibility for the Medicaid program
and the state child health plan using a consolidated application;
and
(2) once the eligibility procedures are complete, all
children identified as eligible for the state child health plan
should be automatically enrolled without further application or
qualification.
(b) The commissioner shall ensure that the processing time
for applications and eligibility redeterminations for the state
child health plan program meet or exceed the performance levels
realized in state fiscal year 2004 by ensuring that the private and
public components, including call centers, of the eligibility and
enrollment system for the state child health program are adequately
staffed and trained. In addition, the commissioner shall ensure
that all computer systems that support the eligibility and
enrollment systems are performing properly.
(c) If for any reason a child becomes ineligible for the state
child health plan program, the Health and Human Services Commission
shall, before terminating the child's benefits under the program,
determine whether the child is eligible for the Medicaid program,
based on the information currently available to the commission. If
the commission determines that the child is eligible, the
commission shall enroll the child in the Medicaid program without
further application or qualification, unless the child's parent
objects to enrollment. The commission shall notify a parent of the
child's eligibility for the Medicaid program and automatic
enrollment in that program as soon as practicable after eligibility
has been determined.
(d) Further,
(1) To the extent allowed by federal law, the executive
commissioner of the Health and Human Services Commission shall
create a program under which a child who is ineligible for the
health benefits coverage under the child health plan solely because
the child's net family income exceeds the income eligibility
requirements otherwise applicable for that coverage may be enrolled
in the plan if:
(i) the child's parents are self-employed; or
(ii) the employer of neither of the child's
parents offers coverage for health care for dependent children of
employees.
(2) The program established under Subsection (1) must
require premium payments, subject to Subsection (3).
(3) The full monthly premium cost for coverage provided
under the program established under this section, including the
amount of any federal or state share of that cost, must be paid by an
enrollee whose net family income is above 200 percent of the federal
poverty level."
The intent of this amendment is that it be revenue neutral,
and that these provisions be completed within funds appropriated
above in Goal C.