The Child Care and Medicare Guide: Partners for Healthy Children is designed to improve childrens' health by encouraging enrollment in Medicaid and the new Children's Health Insurance Program, known as CHIP. It explains Medicaid and CHIP benefits and activities so that child care programs, referral agencies, and other health professionals can determine when children are eligible and how to help them enroll. They can also use it to learn how to establish linkages with these programs so they can make sure children they serve are getting the health care coverage and services they need and deserve.

This guide has been produced through a collaboration between the Health Care Financing Administration (HCFA), which runs Medicaid in partnership with states, and the Administration on Children and Families (ACF). It is one of many cooperative efforts between these two federal agencies to link child care with health care. The guide is a tool to help child care programs, referral agencies, and other health care professionals facilitate enrollment of children in CHIP as well as Medicaid. The guide will be distributed today at the seventh Family Reunion Conference, hosted by Vice President and Mrs. Gore, in Tennessee. The guide includes:

*Outreach activities that child care programs can perform to enroll eligible children into Medicaid and be compensated for, such as assisting families in completing Medicaid applications and obtaining services, informing families about Medicaid through brochures or other promotional materials, and assisting the Medicaid agency in fulfilling the outreach objectives of the Medicaid program;

*Examples of children's programs, local health departments, and various community-based organizations that have working linkages with Medicaid programs and that are successfully identifying and enrolling children who are eligible;

*A description of BBA provisions designed to increase children's health care coverage through Medicaid;

*An explanation of the Early and Periodic Screening, Diagnosis and Treatment program within Medicaid, and of related activities that child care programs can perform, such as making referrals, scheduling appointments and transportation, and conducting case management;

*A chart of state Medicaid eligibility criteria for pregnant women, infants and children; and

Each State's Maternal and Child Health toll-free number, which can provide more information about available health care resources.