1. Announcements Welcome to Catherine Luthe who is the new Hawaii Covering Kids Big Island Local Project outreach worker for West Hawaii. Her telephone number is 775-9133 x 45 and her email address is cvrkids3@aloha.com. CHIP and Immigrant Children's Program enrollment data is available for 1 July 2000 to 28 February 2001. You can download the file at http://www.coveringkids.com/news/Section_37.asp Who's looking at us? coveringkids.com Web site stats for July 2000 to February 2001 are in the same data section http://www.coveringkids.com/news/Section_37.asp under item 5. 2. Kaiser Commission on Medicaid and the Uninsured Latest Publications These are focused on health insurance coverage and the uninsured population: "Health Insurance Coverage in America: 1999 Data Update" provides the most recent data on health insurance coverage, with special attention to the uninsured. It includes trends and major shifts in coverage and a profile of the uninsured population: http://www.kff.org/uninsured/2222-index.cfm. A basic fact sheet "The Uninsured and Their Access to Health Care" has a summary of the uninsured problem: http://www.kff.org/uninsured/1420b-index.cfm. To understand the individual stories behind the statistics, read their publication, "In Their Own Words: The Uninsured Talk About Living Without Health Insurance" profiling eight uninsured families. http://www.kff.org/uninsured/2207-index.cfm. Also available is executive director Diane Rowland's testimony, "Low-Income and Uninsured: The Challenge for Extending Coverage," to the U.S. Senate Committee on Finance. The testimony is from the March 13 hearing on "Who's Uninsured and Why?" http://www.kff.org/medicaid/2242-index.cfm 3. Medicaid and CHIP Profile on Minnesota Two significant changes to Minnesota's Medicaid program have been approved by the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) that will make it easier for children to receive medical and rehabilitative services in school. The two technical changes in the state's Medicaid plan are targeted toward children with physical or developmental disabilities with special needs. This includes children covered under the Individuals with Disabilities Act (IDEA) who have Individual Education Plans (IEPs) and who are eligible for Medicaid. The services covered under the new plan include physical, occupational and speech therapies, rehabilitative nursing, and personal care services performed in school. The first change allows coverage of IEP services to children under Medicaid's Early and Periodic Screening, Diagnostic, and Treatment (EPSDT) benefit. While these services are targeted toward children with IEPs, they can be offered to any Medicaid-eligible child with special needs. The second change added coverage of personal care services to children with IEPs or Individualized Family Service Plans (IFSP) provided by school districts to children during the school day. Services can be obtained by a provider of the family's choosing and is not restricted to providers employed by the school district. 4. Nine More States Receive HHS Grants to Expand Health Insurance Coverage Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy Thompson announced that nine states have received one-year State Planning Grants totaling $10.2 million to develop plans for providing affordable health insurance to uninsured residents in their state. The states that received grants are Arizona, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Idaho, South Dakota, Texas, Utah, and Washington. The nine latest recipients of State Planning Grants join 11 others that received grants totaling $13.6 million last year, the first awards made under the program. These recipients include Arkansas, Delaware, Illinois, Iowa, Kansas, Massachusetts, Minnesota, New Hampshire, Oregon, Vermont, and Wisconsin. "The[se] grants will help states identify who remains uninsured, why they are uninsured and develop ways to get them the coverage they need," said Secretary Thompson. Under the program, administered by the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA), grantees from state agencies will first conduct studies to identify characteristics of the uninsured in their state. Grantees will then use that data to determine the most effective methods to provide all state citizens with high-quality, affordable health insurance similar to plans that cover government employees or other benchmark plans. For more information about the State Planning Grants Program, go to "Who's Uninsured and Why?" http://www.hrsa.gov/stateplanning.