Summary
The impact of these gaffes is evident in the CHIP and Medicaid rolls. As we've written before, CHIP enrollment has plummeted every month since September 2003, when GOP budget cuts and administrative barriers went into effect. The number of kids on CHIP dropped from about 500,000 in 2003 to 330,000 last summer, when the decline began to level off. Then, last December, Accenture took over enrollment for CHIP and children's Medicaid (for convenience, the two health insurance programs use the same application). Since then, CHIP enrollment has nose dived by about 10 percent to 295,000 kids. In Medicaid, 79,000 children have lost coverage since December. Social service advocates blame these rapid declines on bungled privatization. As proof, they point to the percentage of families renewing CHIP or children's Medicaid coverage. Prior to December, the CHIP renewal rate was about 80 percent each month. After Accenture took over in December, the rate dropped to 50 percent and hasn't risen much since. Children's Medicaid, which covers 1.1 million kids and shrinking, has experienced a similar trend.
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Extract
Bermuda Triangle
A few months ago, strange faxes began arriving at a warehouse in Seattle. The documents were pay stubs, tax statements, medical forms-all sent by Texans applying for state benefit programs...
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