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CHIPRA Awards & Performance Bonus

The Children’s Health Insurance Program Reauthorization Act of 2009 (CHIPRA) established performance bonuses, giving states an incentive to support enrollment and retention of eligible children in Medicaid and CHIP and helping to defray the costs associated with increasing enrollment of the lowest income children.  Federal funding for qualifying states is awarded annually in fiscal years 2009 through 2013. To qualify for a performance bonus, states:

  • must implement at least five out of eight specific program features aimed at streamlining their enrollment procedures to improve children’s health coverage programs, and 
  • must increase children’s enrollment in Medicaid above a baseline level for the fiscal year.  

On December 19, 2012, CMS awarded nearly $306 million in FY 2012 CHIPRA Performance Bonuses to 23 states.  See the resources, below, for more information on the bonuses and the program features states put in place in their Medicaid and CHIP programs to improve access to coverage for eligible children.

Over $206 million in CHIPRA Performance Bonuses have been awarded to 15 states for simplifying their enrollment and renewal processes and for increasing enrollment of uninsured children in the Medicaid program.

CHIPRA State Performance Bonuses
State Bonus
Alabama $54,965,407
Alaska $4,408,789
Colorado $13,671,043
Illinois $14,962,171
Iowa $6,760,901
Kansas $2,578,099
Louisiana $3,555,853
Maryland $10,549,086
Michigan $9,268,552
New Jersey $8,788,959
New Mexico $8,533,431
Ohio $12,376,346
Oregon $15,055,255
Washington $17,607,725
Wisconsin $23,076,127
Total $206,157,744

The Kaiser Family Foundation’s Commission Report on Medicaid and the Uninsured credited the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) and CHIPRA with enabling states to expand access to care for low-income, uninsured children.  In a 50-state survey, the commission concluded that 26 states expanded and/ or simplified their Medicaid and CHIP programs in 2009.  For the full report, please visit https://www.kff.org.

Additional Resources