On September 10, the Commonwealth Fund issued a report examining provisions of the State Children’s Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) expansion under the Children's Health Insurance Program Reauthorization Act of 2009 (CHIPRA).  The report examines provisions of the bill pertaining to outreach, enrollment, health quality, and measurement.  The report recommends: “giving funding priority to states that will adopt or maintain key simplifications, providing clarity on the relationship between express-lane procedures (which allow states to use relevant findings from other public programs when determining children’s enrollment eligibility) and error measurement, ensuring quality measures focus on priority health needs for children, and building quality measurement and improvement capabilities into electronic health information systems.” 

From the executive summary:

The Children’s Health Insurance Program Reauthorization Act (CHIPRA) of 2009 has the potential to transform children’s health care in the United States. The authors of this report analyze selected provisions of the legislation that involve outreach and enrollment, as well as child health quality and measurement. Using input from interviews with a range of stakeholders and a panel of experts, the report provides a set of recommendations for the federal government officials charged with implementing CHIPRA. Recommendations include: giving funding priority to states that will adopt or maintain key simplifications, providing clarity on the relationship between express-lane procedures (which allow states to use relevant findings from other public programs when determining children’s enrollment eligibility) and error measurement, ensuring quality measures focus on priority health needs for children, and building quality measurement and improvement capabilities into electronic health information systems, among others.

Full report: Implementation Choices for the Children's Health Insurance Program Reauthorization Act of 2009 (PDF | 729 KB)

The Commonwealth Fund. (2009). Implementation choices for the Children's Health Insurance Program Reauthorization Act of 2009. Simpson, L., Fairbrother, G., Touschner,  J. and Guyer, J.