Illinois

Illinois: Maximize Enrollment and Retention in Illinois   
 
The Maximize Enrollment and Retention in Illinois initiative led by the Illinois Department of Healthcare and Family Services in collaboration with the Illinois Department of Human Services, seeks to ensure a seamless, no wrong door enrollment and renewal process for families.
 
The initial phase of the Maximizing Enrollment program focused on an assessment of the strengths and opportunities for improvement in each grantee state’s enrollment and retention systems. Illinois’s assessment determined the following:
 
Strengths:

• Making health insurance available to all children
• Providing application assistance to reduce enrollment barriers
• Fostering relationships with community-based organizations

Challenges:

• Ongoing state budget crisis
• Outdated information systems
• Need further analysis of churning or coverage disruptions

 
Goals for Improvement:

• Expand data capacity, management and use
• Improve eligibility systems
• Identify and eliminate issues causing unnecessary coverage disruption
• Encourage further involvement of stakeholders

 
Key Activities:

• Evaluate current data capacity
• Increase data-sharing with other state agencies
• Develop electronic case imaging system
• Engage staff all levels of eligibility processing
• Include community partners in the renewal process
• Promote better customer service and enrollment retention

 
Alignment with Reform:

• Engaged in the development and design of a state health insurance exchange.

 
Click here for a profile of Illinois’ Medicaid and CHIP programs and to learn about the state’s enrollment and renewal simplification strategies.
 
As Governor Pat Quinn has written in his support for the proposal, “It is vital that every eligible child be enrolled in this important program [All Kids], which I have long supported.”