Children with complex medical conditions or rare diseases face battles every day. During such fragile times, they should be focusing on recovery and living with their complex condition, not coordinating logistics with their care teams.
But in many cases, children and their families are forced to wait for insurance companies to process and screen their physicians before they can even begin or continue treatment, which may cause delays in care that negatively impact a child’s condition.
Children with complex conditions who are enrolled in Medicaid or the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) often need to travel out-of-state to get treatment, requiring the out-of-state physician to enroll in the patient’s home state Medicaid program. Even though the out-of-state physician has already been screened and enrolled in their own state Medicaid program, the provider has to go through a lengthy and arduous screening process to get enrolled in the other state, leading to care delays.
As a physician and parent, I understand the duty to care for our children’s health. Therefore, in July, I partnered with Senator Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), Senator Michael Bennet (D-Colo.) and Representative Lori Trahan (D-Mass.) to introduce the Accelerating Kids’ Access to Care Act. This legislation would streamline the screening process by allowing providers in good standing in their home state and who treat children from other states, to enroll in multiple state Medicaid programs for a period of five years.
This legislation simplifies out-of-state Medicaid screening and enrollment processes for pediatric care providers while retaining critical safeguards to preserve the integrity of the program. It would assist children, their families, and local hospitals like the University of Iowa Stead Family Children’s Hospital.
On February 29, the House Energy and Commerce Committee conducted a hearing on legislative proposals to support patients with rare diseases and my bill was one of those discussed in the hearing.
Dr. Alexander Bassuk, the Physician-in-Chief at the University of Iowa Stead Family Children’s Hospital, testified as a witness at this hearing. He represented our community well and discussed how this legislation would benefit children, communities, and hospitals.
The Accelerating Kids’ Access to Care Act is a commonsense bill that will help children and parents by increasing the efficiency of access to care and improve the quality of life for children with complex diseases without incurring significant costs to the Medicaid system.
I am encouraged by the House Energy and Commerce Committee’s commitment to supporting legislation that benefits children. While we still have much work that needs to be done to cut screening processing times, I will continue to advocate for these children and their families.
Mariannette Miller-Meeks currently represents Iowa’s First District in the United States House of Representatives.