The large (and growing) number of uninsured children in America prompted Congress to establish SCHIP to provide no-cost health insurance for children in families who do not qualify for Medicaid, yet can not afford to purchase private insurance – in short, the working poor. Unfortunately, low numbers of applicants have been endemic to this program nationwide. To alleviate this problem, many administrators have turned to contractors to provide the intense outreach and application assistance needed to increase program enrollment.

AHS was familiar with this type of program from its experiences with our Jobs Bill and CHAPS projects in Pennsylvania. This, coupled with our vast experience in community outreach, made us an ideal candidate for SCHIP contracts, including that for the West Virginia CHIP Hotline that AHS implemented in 2001 and that for the New York Child Health Plus Hotline secured in 2003.

While the foundation of our SCHIP operation is our Helpline, we have bolstered promotion about SCHIP and the application process via extensive field outreach, which focuses on recruiting community entities to partner with us and "spread the word" about SCHIP.

Our experience in managing SCHIP Projects has provided us with a wealth of knowledge related to SCHIP regulations and policy, relationships with myriad government bureaus, divisions and program offices, and hands-on experience with state computer systems, all of which are beneficial to the SCHIP Projects we administer. The skill set we bring to these projects includes the following:

• Consumer outreach and education
• Toll-free helplines
• Networking with community based agencies
• Training
• Electronic application and eligibility tracking systems
• Interface with the business community
• Reporting