Policy   Directive                                                   Issuance Number: MS 03-01

Medical Services Policy Manual                       Issuance Date: April 1, 2003

From: Joni Jones, Director                               Expiration Date: Until Superseded

Subj: Implementation of SCHIP Provisions to ARKids B

The State of Arkansas has been approved to claim enhanced federal funding for certain ARKids B recipients through the State Child Health Insurance Program (SCHIP), Title XXI of the Social Security Act. It has been estimated that the enhanced funding will save Arkansas approximately one million dollars a year in state general revenue.

Effective April 1, 2003, Arkansas will be able to claim SCHIP funding on all ARKids B children who meet the conditions below:

1. The child is not eligible for ARKids A or any other category of Medicaid.
2. The child is not eligible to receive Arkansas State or Public School employee's insurance. This includes children who are living with a parent or stepparent who works for AR State Government, an AR State University, a Public School District in AR, and AR two-year State College or an AR Technical School. A question has been added to the DCO-995 and DCO-975 to identify these children.

The caseworker must determine those families who choose ARKids B but whose children are eligible for ARKids A or another Medicaid category, and children of State or Public employees.

The following codes will be used in the WP STATUS field on WAFM to identify these children:

            ME ARKids A eligible

            PE Not ARKids A eligible, child of AR State or Public School employee

            NN Not ARKids A eligible, not child of AR State or Public School employee

The WP STATUS field will be a required field for all children in the ARKids B category.

On ANSWER, children with these characteristics will be identified in the Client Notebook, using General Characteristics under the Characteristics Tab.

If the county receives an old application that doesn't include the question concerning children of AR State or Public School employees, the caseworker should determine from the income reported if the parent is a state employee or not and code appropriately. If there is a question after viewing the reported income, the applicant should be contacted.

Co-payments on dental well health visits for all ARKids B children have been discontinued.

For policy updates see [MS 16010] - 16030.  

Inquiries to: Jack Tiner, 501-682-8259

Diana Teal, 501-682-1562

Carmen Brown, 501-682-8258

Carla Droughn, 501-682-8254