Children's Health Insurance Program (CHIP)

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July 19, 2007

The Honorable Max Baucus                                  The Honorable Charles Grassley

Chairman, Finance Committee                               Ranking Member, Finance Committee

U.S. Senate                                                           U.S. Senate

Washington, DC  20510                                        Washington, DC  20510

Dear Senators Baucus and Grassley:

On behalf of the nearly 65,000 clinically practicing physician assistants in the United States represented by the American Academy of Physician Assistants (AAPA), I write today to applaud your leadership in crafting a bi-partisan renewal of the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP).  The CHIP program has long been a priority for the AAPA, and we see the agreement that was released last week as a strong first step toward renewing and extending this critically important safety-net program for millions of our nation’s children. 

AAPA strongly supports policies and programs that eliminate health disparities and ensure access to quality, affordable and cost-efficient care for all Americans.  PAs are an important part of the health care workforce that provides medical care to some of the country’s most vulnerable children, those covered by Medicaid and CHIP.  AAPA is pleased that your new CHIP agreement maintains coverage for all 6.6 million children currently in the program and provides health coverage to an additional 3.3 million low-income, uninsured children. We are also pleased to see additional funding for expanded enrollment and outreach efforts by states, as well as streamlined Medicaid enrollment procedures, included in the legislation. 

In addition to its support of CHIP program, the AAPA believes that Congress has a unique opportunity in this bill to improve access to care for underserved children by requiring states to recognize PAs as primary care case managers in Medicaid managed care plans and CHIP.  PAs have a longstanding history of providing care in medically underserved communities, and have been credited with improving access to quality and cost-effective health care for many among the nation’s most vulnerable patient populations.  Lack of federal standardization across the states has led to significant differences in the extent to which states recognize PAs as primary care case managers.  AAPA encourages Members of Congress to add language to the CHIP reauthorization that would improve Medicaid and CHIP patients’ access to the quality care provided by our nation's PAs.

The AAPA thanks you for your hard work to secure a bi-partisan agreement on CHIP, and looks forward to working with Congress not only to seek the appropriate funding needed to cover all uninsured children eligible for CHIP, but also to ensure Medicaid and CHIP beneficiaries’  access to PAs as primary care providers. 

Should you have any questions or need additional information on the AAPA, the PA profession, or the issue of covering PAs under Medicaid and CHIP, please do not hesitate to have your staff contact Sandy Harding, AAPA’s Director of Federal Affairs at 703/836-2272, extension 3205 or via e-mail at sandra@aapa.org.

Sincerely yours,

 

Gregor F. Bennett, M.A., P.A.-C

President