Children and Families

On Monday, August 30th, CMS released two State Health Official (SHO) letters and a PowerPoint document that provide guidance regarding a variety of issues, including increases to state FMAP for several activities, opportunities to improve vaccine uptake among providers and beneficiaries, and habilitation services for children with disabilities.

CMS released the 2020 Medicaid and CHIP Beneficiary Profile and Infographic. The profile and infographic provide an overview of the characteristics, health status, access, utilization, expenditures, and experience of the beneficiaries served by Medicaid and CHIP.

The Supplemental Security Income (SSI) program provides financial support to low income individuals, including children, adults with severe disabilities, and adults ages 65 and older. This brief describes the SSI program and the demographic and economic characteristics of SSI beneficiaries. Additionally, it discusses state programs that supplement federal SSI, reasons some eligible people do not participate in SSI, and some current changes to the program.

This blog post by Edmondo J. Robinson, M.D., M.B.A., Peter J. Embí, M.D., M.S., Ramanathan Raju, M.D., M.B.A., and Yanling Yu, Ph.D. explores how social determinants of health have led to health inequity during the pandemic. Read the blog post to learn how health literacy and access to technology play a role in bridging the gap in health outcomes.

CMS released a SHO letter with updated guidance to assist states in planning for resuming normal state Medicaid, CHIP, and BHP operations for the eventual end of the public health emergency. The SHO provides updated guidance regarding the extended timeframe for states to complete pending work in eligibility and enrollment to up to 12 months after the PHE ends and redetermination of eligibility requirements states must complete after the PHE for all beneficiaries before taking adverse actions.

CMS Office of Minority Health is recognizing National Immunization Awareness month by providing immunization and vaccine resources on their website. The site houses shareable information about available, low cost vaccines, Medicare coverage for vaccines, COVID-19 resources, and more.

NAMD spoke with Medicaid Directors and senior program leaders to understand where they are focusing their time as they continue to respond to the pandemic, pursue long-term program innovation and improvement, and manage their staff. NAMD has found that Medicaid Directors and senior leaders are currently focusing on program innovation and strategic initiatives, stakeholder engagement, program operations, staff management, COVID response.

Through a national survey, focus groups and a series of documentary videos, NCOA has collected data from grandparents providing part-time child care to young grandchildren. This research has helped helped NCOA create a one-of-its-kind Grand Connections workshop series to support grandparent caregivers.

The Center for Health Care Strategies, with support from the Lucile Packard Foundation for Children’s Health, conducted a 50-state survey and a set of interviews to gauge the broad range of engagement strategies being used by Medicaid agencies. This report highlights key findings from the survey, including engagement themes, challenges, and recommendations for Medicaid agencies that can have lasting impact on outcomes, quality, equity, and cost.

On Tuesday, July 6, 2021, CMS released the Quality Report to Congress identifying efforts undertaken to improve the quality of health care for children and adults enrolled in Medicaid and the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP). The report provides information on activities undertaken between 2017 and 2019, including changes in performance in the quality measures included in the Medicaid and CHIP Child and Adult Core Sets.