Issue Briefs | Feb 12, 2012

Strategies for Building Seamless Health Systems for Low-Income Populations

The George Washington University – Sara Rosenbaum; Center for Health Care Strategies – Stephen Somers and Shannon McMahon

The Affordable Care Act offers numerous opportunities to stabilize coverage and care for beneficiaries as their incomes fluctuate, and states can reduce the impact of churn between coverage programs with design and purchasing strategies that promote seamlessness. This brief explores the challenges for states in creating seamless health coverage for low-income populations, while providing states with a roadmap as they consider building seamless health systems. Key issues for states to consider include managing subsidy fluctuations through carefully designed eligibility and enrollment strategies and ensuring stable coverage and care by creating seamlessness across benefits, providers, and health plans.


Expert Perspectives

September 24, 2020

Maintaining Medicaid and CHIP Coverage Amid Postal Delays and Housing Displacements

In light of recent postal delays and housing displacements caused by the COVID-19 pandemic and related economic crisis, and a wave of natural disasters across the country, state Medicaid and Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) agencies face new challenges communicating with their enrollees about their health coverage. Acting now to mitigate these challenges is essential as states are preparing for the end of the public health emergency (PHE) and “catching up” on coverage renewals for a large portion of their enrollees. This expert perspective reviews strategies that state Medicaid and CHIP agencies may consider to help mitigate coverage losses.