News & Events > United Hospital Fund Report Lays Out Approaches to Simplify Enrollment and Retention in New York's Public Insurance Programs

A report from the United Hospital Fund’s Medicaid Institute™ explores how New York could use data-matching strategies to simplify enrollment and retention in its public health insurance programs.

The report Reducing Paperwork to Improve Enrollment and Retention in Medicaid and CHIP is available on the Fund’s website. The report was prepared for the Fund’s Medicaid Institute™ by Jennifer Edwards, Jodi Bitterman, and Caroline Davis (Health Management Associates); Rebecca Kellenberg (Kellenberg Consulting); and Stan Dorn (Urban Institute).

The report focuses on “third-party data matching,” i.e., determining people’s eligibility for Medicaid or CHIP by looking at information they have submitted to a public agency for another purpose. Information about applicants from tax records, the food stamps program, and vital records databases can be used to automate and simplify enrollment and renewal. It can also be used for outreach to those who may not realize they are eligible. Third-party data matching offers the promise of increasing enrollment and retention of eligible children and adults in Medicaid and CHIP, lowering administrative program costs, and improving convenience for applicants.

About a dozen states now use third-party data matching for enrollment or renewal in their Medicaid programs. This report describes the experiences of several states that are relevant for New York. The successes of other states—and the challenges they have faced in implementing third-party data matching—demonstrate that such programs require significant work, but that there is payoff for the investment.

One million New Yorkers—about 44 percent of all uninsured people in the state—are eligible for public health insurance but are not enrolled. One-third of Medicaid enrollees are involuntarily disenrolled at renewal. Using data-matching to enroll people in insurance—and to keep them enrolled—could help improve these troubling statistics.

Recent federal legislation has eased certain constraints: the Children’s Health Insurance Program Reauthorization Act of 2009 (CHIPRA) offers new opportunities for states to pursue data-driven enrollment and retention strategies by eliminating many of the barriers states previously faced. This law provides new options to simplify eligibility determination for Medicaid and CHIP by using data from other government agencies or public programs. With these new opportunities and the implementation of New York’s Enrollment Center on the horizon, the report concludes, “The time is right to consider such data matching strategies.”

“As much as national health reform discussions will address expanding insurance coverage, we expect that states will still be responsible for many aspects of implementation, and certainly finding ways to simplify enrollment and renewal of those who are eligible will be critically important,” said Jim Tallon, president of United Hospital Fund. “New York is aggressively pursuing simplification, and this report will help inform those discussions.”

About the United Hospital Fund: The United Hospital Fund is a health services research and philanthropic organization whose mission is to shape positive change in health care for the people of New York.

About the Medicaid Institute™: The Medicaid Institute™ at United Hospital Fund provides information and analysis explaining New York’s Medicaid program, with the goal of helping all stakeholders redesign, restructure, and rebuild the program.

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