Louisiana

Louisiana:  Louisiana MaxEnroll Initiative

The LaCHIP/Medicaid Eligibility Division within the Louisiana Department of Health and Hospitals (DHH) is leading the Louisiana MaxEnroll Initiative as a grantee of the Maximizing Enrollment for Kids program. The state’s Medicaid program and its Medicaid expansion Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP), known as LaCHIP, provide health coverage for Louisiana’s eligible children with family incomes up to 200% of the federal poverty level (FPL). Children with net income above 200% of the FPL and gross income at or below 250% of the FPL receive coverage through the LaCHIP Affordable Plan, which is a separate CHIP program the state implemented on June 1, 2008.
 
Since the implementation of the LaCHIP program in 1998, enrollment of children in public coverage has more than doubled. The state attributes eligibility process improvements over the last decade as a major factor in reducing the percentage of low income uninsured children in Louisiana by over 20%. Such improvements included changes to enrollment and renewals processes, including application revisions and adoption of ex parte renewals. In addition to ongoing simplification strategies, LaCHIP has made efforts to try to change the culture of its program resulting in proactive intervention by caseworkers to increase retention. As a grantee of the Maximizing Enrollment for Kids program, DHH is interested reassessing its existing LaCHIP and Medicaid application and enrollment processes to identify opportunities for additional simplifications.
 
Click here for a profile of Louisiana’s Medicaid and CHIP programs and to learn about the state’s enrollment and renewal simplification strategies.
 
“Enrolling all eligible uninsured children in SCHIP and Medicaid is important to Louisiana citizens and remains to be a priority of my administration.” – Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal, 2008