Texas CHIP Coalition Minutes
Friday, November 18, 2005 11:15 a.m. - 1:00 p.m.
May Owen Conference Room, 10th Floor
Texas Medical Association
Anne Dunkelberg called the meeting to order at 11:15 a.m.
There were no official updates from HHSC; however, Anne Dunkelberg shared several
email correspondences from HHSC on requests previously made by the coalition. One request
was an update on the CHIP asset limit test. Rick Allgeyer of HHSC provided Anne a copy
of the CHIP asset report completed for fiscal year 2005 through September and October
2006. See attached excel documents: FY 2005 and FY 2006. 
The coalition had previously requested enrollment data on the Katrina Medicaid Waiver.
Mr. Allgeyer informed Anne that the data would be available for the coalition by the
next week. The HHSC presentation to Senate Finance in Beaumont contains the limited
information available to date, and is attached. 
The Center for Public Policy Priorities (CPPP) has communicated with H&R Block about
Block’s activities around the U.S. screening their tax clients for eligibility for public
services, such as identifying clients whose children may be eligible for CHIP or
Medicaid, but are not enrolled in the program. Last year, H&R Block conducted
some pilot activities in the CHIP EPO areas of the state. Anne will report back
on the details of H&R Block’s Texas activities when she gets more information.
There was brief discussion on the new Children’s Insurance application. The
coalition was provided a draft of the new application that is being developed by
HHSC. The new Children’s Insurance application is designed to be more seamless,
with less distinction between children’s Medicaid and CHIP. The application will
be available in January and eventually the HHSC logo will replace the TexCare logo. See attachment. 
The coalition discussed its interest in HHSC inviting more stakeholder input on
changes to policy procedures and materials before changes become finalized. The
coalition is very interested in rebuilding the level of collaboration that once
existed between state officials and the Texas Statewide CHIP coalition.
The coalition brainstormed on how best to troubleshoot problems that may arise
with families once the new IEE system is in operation. Participants agreed it
would be important to share information about issues that arise in the roll-out,
both to correct problems for individual clients and to identify trends and patterns.
CHIP dental benefits are scheduled to roll out April 1, 2006. There were several
questions and concerns regarding the delay in implementing the dental benefits.
Unfortunately, HHSC was not available to attend the meeting to address the
questions; however, the coalition will request an update at the December meeting.
Several organizations briefly shared their legislative agendas that are currently
being prepared. Patti Everett suggested having a group meeting to discuss and
explore legislative priorities.
Anne provided a federal update on the budget reconciliation. Last-minute changes
to the House bill made no significant improvement in cuts to food stamps, foster
care, SSI, child care, child support enforcement, and Medicaid. The co-pay limit
did not increase from $3-$5 for Medicaid recipients’ below the poverty line.
However, there is a provision in the bill that ties the increase in the allowable
co-payments to medical inflation, which is more than double what Medicaid eligibility
guidelines will increase by. The bill would also allow states to charge unlimited
co-payments and impose large premiums on patients above the federal poverty limit
(or 133% FPL for ages 1-6). This would greatly affect some disabled and long-term
care patients.
With no other discussion items, the meeting adjourned at 1:00 p.m.
The next CHIP coalition meeting will be held on Friday, January 13, 11:00 a.m. –
1:00 p.m. at TMA, 401 W. 15th Street, in the May Owen Conference Room, 10th floor.
Related Information
Other Coalition Meeting Minutes
This document in pdf format [pdf]
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