Children’s Health Insurance Program Advisory Committee

Children’s Health Insurance Program Advisory Committee (CHIPAC) was established by the Virginia Legislature and is maintained by the Department of Medical Assistance Services. The purpose of the committee is to assess the policies, operations and outreach efforts for Family Access to Medical Insurance Security (FAMIS) and FAMIS Plus (children’s Medicaid) and to evaluate enrollment, utilization of services, and health outcomes of children eligible for such programs.

The Committee meets quarterly and consists of a maximum of 20 members. The Joint Commission on Health Care; the Department of Social Services; the Department of Health; the Department of Education; the Department of Mental Health, Mental Retardation and Substance Abuse Services; and the Virginia Health Care Foundation are mandated by the Code of Virginia to have a member serve on CHIPAC. Additional, non-mandated members are from various provider associations, children’s advocacy groups or individuals with significant knowledge and interest in children’s health insurance issues.

Mission:

The mission of the Children’s Health Insurance Program Advisory Committee is to advise the Director of the Department of Medical Assistance Services (DMAS) and the Secretary of Health and Human Resources on ways to optimize the efficiency and effectiveness of DMAS programs to address the health needs of children.

Subcommittees:

To achieve the mission of the Children’s Health Insurance Program Advisory Committee and to continuously work to improve health services for children, 4 subcommittees were established. These subcommittees include:

Executive Subcommittee:

This subcommittee includes the Chair and Vice Chair of CHIPAC, and Chairs of the Retention, Access, and Utilization subcommittees. This subcommittee generally meets one month prior to the full committee meeting to establish the agenda and prepare for the upcoming full committee meeting and guide CHIPAC’s work between full committee meetings.

Retention Subcommittee:

This subcommittee concentrates it’s work on issues related to enrollment and annual renewal, churning (dropping off and re-enrolling in short periods of time), cost of re-enrollment, and renewal/retention benchmarks or standards.

Access Subcommittee:

This subcommittee concentrates it’s work on enrollees’ access to providers and services. This committee may address these and other issues that interfere with children’s access to care, including language and cultural barriers, parent and provider awareness, care for children with special health care needs, and systems problems.

Utilization Subcommittee:

This subcommittee concentrates it’s work on issues surrounding who is accessing benefit services versus who is not, and the frequency with which these services are used.

  CHIPAC Members,
Jill Hanken and Earl Ford, Jr.

For more information on CHIPAC meetings or to view agendas and meeting minutes from past meetings, please visit the Commonwealth Calendar.