Report: States streamline Medicaid/CHIP enrollment, but challenges remain

States are making it easier to enroll in Medicaid and the Children’s Health Insurance Program, but many must still establish automated renewal processes and smooth data transfers between Medicaid and the Health Insurance Marketplace, according to the latest annual survey by the Kaiser Commission on Medicaid and the Uninsured and Georgetown University’s Center for Children and Families. The survey looks at Medicaid and CHIP eligibility, enrollment, renewal and cost-sharing policies by state. Medicaid applicants could apply online in all states and by phone in 47 states as of January, but 34 states had delayed 2014 renewals in Medicaid and 22 in CHIP to ease the transition to new automated renewal processes. In states with separate systems for determining Medicaid and Marketplace eligibility, difficulty transferring data between the systems also contributed to some delays in Medicaid enrollment, the authors said.