Many of El Paso's children are losing their health insurance every month when a state insurance program could have provided them health coverage.

Last November, TAA, a group of companies led by Bermuda-based Accenture LLP, began processing statewide applications for the Children's Health Insurance Program (CHIP) and Children's Medicaid. Since TAA/Accenture's management, almost 30,000 Texas children have been dropped from the CHIP rolls. In April, enrollment dropped by nearly 10,000 children, bringing the total enrollment to 292,681 -- the lowest point in five years.

Today, CHIP is in trouble.

In El Paso, almost 2,000 children have been disenrolled from CHIP since November. In our community, which is the most uninsured large city in the nation, this is intolerable.

As requested by Senator Shapleigh, State Comptroller Carole Keeton Strayhorn announced on May 10 that she plans to audit TAA/Accenture to investigate "the perfect storm of wasted tax dollars, reduced access to services . . . and profiteering at the expense of taxpayers.

CHIP was created in 1997, in a bill co-authored by Senator Shapleigh, to provide health insurance to the large number of uninsured children with family incomes too high to qualify for Medicaid, but who cannot afford private insurance. Despite early success in the program, preliminary enrolment numbers for May 2006 indicate 28,000 more children would have lost their CHIP benefits under TAA had not the state intervened with a reprieve.

But, this is a temporary solution to what seems to be a permanent problem. Senator Shapleigh is working to find a real solution and finding a way to make CHIP work for our children.

This is a summary of the work that your Senator, Eliot Shapleigh, has done on CHIP and Children's Medicaid.

Ongoing Enrollment and Eligibility Issues

• October 5, 2005 joint press release with Senator Barrientos


• Called for a Special Joint Interim Committee to scrutinize all current and anticipated contracts to be issued by the Texas Health and Human Services Commission; in response to a State Auditor's report detailing HHSC's failure to achieve any of the $21.7 million savings promised by outsourcing payroll and human resources jobs to the private company Congergys.

• October 12, 2005 letter to Albert Hawkins, Commissioner, Health and Human Services Commission


• Re: insufficient number of applications for CHIP and Children's Medicaid. Asked for response re: what HHSC will do put enough applications in the field.

• November 29, 2005 letter to Albert Hawkins, Commissioner, Health and Human Services Commission


• Re: unaddressed issues surrounding HHSC's unprecedented privatization of Texas' call-centers.

• March 14, 2006 letter to Albert Hawkins, Commissioner, Health and Human Services Commission


• Re: CHIP and Children's Medicaid disenrollment. Contains 8 specific questions with re: to falling enrollment numbers and what HHSC is doing to address the matter.

• April 10, 2006 letter to Albert Hawkins, Commissioner, Health and Human Services Commission


• Re: postponement of rollout of new eligibility system; urging HHSC not to continue moving forward until they are certain that the problems plaguing the system are completely and totally resolved.

• April 18, 2006 letter to John Keel, State Auditor


• Re: requesting an audit report on CHIP's operation at HHSC

• May 3, 2006 letter to Albert Hawkins, Commissioner, Health and Human Services Commission


• Re: continued falling enrollment numbers; urging HHSC to extend disenrollment moratorium to include all CHIP enrollees; questions re: preliminary survey results released by HHSC; story of constituent's ongoing problems with CHIP

• May 10, 2006 letter to Carole Keeton Strayhorn, Comptroller of Public Accounts


• Re: requesting an investigation into Texas Access Alliance/Accenture's operation of state's eligibility system for public benefits [she responded by stating that she will be conducting the investigation]

• May 30, 2006 letter to Carole Keeton Strayhorn, Comptroller of Public Accounts


• Re: follow-up to May 10 letter, requesting that she concentrate her investigation on particular matters of concern to the Senator

1999-2004

• In the 76th Legislative Session:


• Co-authored and passed legislation (S.B. 445) which created the CHIP program. From the 76th Session in Review: "As a member of the Senate Interim Committee on Children's Health Insurance, Sen. Shapleigh helped develop recommendations for the Children's Health Insurance Program (CHIP), a comprehensive health insurance program for needy Texas children. Sen. Shapleigh joined Senators Mike Moncrief (D-Ft. Worth) and Bill Ratliff (R-Mt. Pleasant) as a co-author of S.B. 445, which created the new program …"


• Helped lead El Paso to the title of "Best in Texas" in terms of enrolling children in CHIP upon the program's initial launch. Along with other area leaders, helped set up and operate phone banks, a telethon, a media campaign, as well as placing the application in the Pathway to Lifelong Health and Learning packet produced by the Paso Del Norte Health Foundation. Spearheaded enrollment drives throughout the city and worked with area school districts to disseminate the application throughout the community.

• In the 77th Legislative Session:


• Passed legislation (S.B. 1053) that directs HHSC to eliminate Medicaid and CHIP reimbursement rate disparities in Texas-Mexico Border counties.


• Co-authored and passed legislation (S.B. 43) that streamlines the Medicaid and CHIP application process to enroll more children in those programs.


• Co-authored and passed legislation (S.B. 1299) that requires HHSC to appoint a taskforce on rate-setting methodologies for the CHIP and Medicaid programs.

• In the 78th Legislative Session:


• Authored legislation (S.B. 398) aimed at raising the Medicaid and CHIP capitation rates in strategic investment areas (SIA) to the statewide average.


• Authored legislation (S.B. 493) that required HHSC to regularly evaluate program contractors and subcontractors that provide or arrange for the services for persons enrolled in Medicaid and CHIP.


• Authored legislation (S.B. 561) that added medical malpractice claims for Medicaid and CHIP patients to the list of incidents in which the state would provide indemnification, in an effort to lower malpractice rates and retain physicians who provide care to low-income families in Medicaid or CHIP.

• In the 79th Legislative Session:

• Authored legislation (S.B. 1482) that provided for an improved cost-benefit analysis process that HHSC uses to determine cost-savings when outsourcing and privatizing state services. Specifically, the legislation would force HHSC, when determining "best value," to consider all costs associated with acquiring a vendor's services including start-up costs, transition costs, the cost of contract monitoring and other administrative costs, the cost to the agency should the vendor fail to comply with the terms of the contract, and the economic impact to local government of any reduction in force associated with the contract.


• Authored legislation (S.B. 1482) that fought to keep health and human services jobs in Texas and the U.S. Specifically, it prohibited contractors and subcontractors that contract with health and human services agencies from using foreign workers to perform any work under the terms of their contract.