The bipartisan Accelerating Kids’ Access to Care Act would improve children’s access to needed out-of-state health care by streamlining the burdensome and time-consuming Medicaid provider screening and enrollment process.
Children on Medicaid often must travel to different states to receive care when the services they need are not available in their own state. This is particularly true for children with medically complex conditions, like cancer or other rare diseases, who must regularly access highly specialized providers found in children’s hospitals, which are often treating children from many different states at any given time.
Today, children on Medicaid needing care outside their home states often experience delays because some state Medicaid programs require out-of-state providers to be screened and enrolled into their program even if the provider is already enrolled and in good standing with their home state Medicaid program and in Medicare.
This process of enrolling in multiple Medicaid programs consumes valuable time and resources, increases program costs and most importantly delays children’s access to care.
The Accelerating Kids’ Access to Care Act would:
- Create a new pathway for pediatric providers to enroll in multiple state Medicaid programs if certain requirements are met, including that they are in the lowest category for potential program integrity issues and are enrolled in their home state Medicaid program.
- Only focuses on the screening and enrollment of providers and not on authorization of care by an out-of-state provider nor payment rates for any such care, leaving both issues within the purview of state Medicaid agencies.
The Accelerating Kids’ Access to Care Act has strong bipartisan support. The bill is led by Sens. Grassley, R-Iowa, and Bennet, D-Colo., and Rep. Trahan, D-Mass., and co-sponsored by Rep. Miller-Meeks, R-Iowa, and a growing list of bipartisan supporters.
This legislation will improve children’s access to essential health care, while eliminating administrative burdens for providers and states.
We ask lawmakers to please co-sponsor S. 2372/H.R. 4758 and for Congress to enact the Accelerating Kids’ Access to Care Act this year.
