PHA's Included as "Express Lane" Agencies Under SCHIP Bills Now Going to Conference.

Thursday PM, the Senate approved their version of H.R. 2, the SCHIP [State Children's Health Insurance] bill 66-32. A Senate-House conference will now meet to reconcile differences between the House and Senate passed bills. [The House passed version of the bill is HERE.]

In listening to the debate, I heard a reference to Express Lane enrollments, which appear to give states the option to accept income eligibility determinations made for other public assistance programs as sufficient for purposes of determining a child's SCHIP income eligibility.

I was pleasantly surprised to find that one of the Express Lane agencies is "A public agency that determines eligibility under..The United States Housing Act of 1937." (In the House bill Express Lane agencies are discussed in Section 203; the reference to the US Housing Act agencies is found on page 110 of the House passed bill).

It would appear from my reading of this language that at a minimum that [income] eligibility determinations made by public housing agencies could be accepted by states in enrolling children into SCHIP. Not sure whether eligibility determinations made by non public agencies (for tenants in privately owned HUD project based units, for example) would be acceptable, but I am sure future guidance would clarify.

Presuming my reading about PHA's at least is correct, and the language is not modified in the House-Senate conference, this provides a streamlined way of quickly enrolling children in SCHIP. (Enrollment and outreach has been a long standing problem).

[I am not sure if Medicaid has a similar provision, but if not there should be, as it seems likely that more children in PHA administered HUD funded housing are eligible for Medicaid than for SCHIP].