Children's Health Insurance Program: State Implementation Approaches Are Evolving

Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO provided information on the implementation of the State Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP), focusing on states': (1) initial SCHIP design choices, including the use of the statutory flexibility to design their programs; (2) pursuit of statutory options, particularly extending coverage to adults in families with children; (3) development of innovative outreach strategies to enroll eligible children; and (4) tailoring of strategies to avoid the crowd out of both private insurance and Medicaid coverage by SCHIP.