Conducting a field evaluation of RWJF's Maximizing Enrollment program

The Foundation's initiative, Maximizing Enrollment for Kids: Making Medicaid and SCHIP Work, was designed to increase health insurance coverage of eligible but uninsured children in Medicaid and SCHIP by helping states improve their policies and procedures and to measure the impact of these changes.This grant supports a qualitative evaluation of Maximizing Enrollment for Kids. Through interviews with grantees, policy-makers and other key stakeholders in the program's eight sites, the project will provide important insight about the factors that affect the program's ability to enroll more children in Medicaid and the State Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP). The project will focus on the role of political, bureaucratic, organizational and environmental factors, as well as leadership, in improving states' enrollment and retention efforts. Deliverables will include annual reports with general and state-specific findings, as well as periodic phone calls to provide feedback to the program team on a regular basis. This grant is being transferred from the Research Foundation of State University of New York to Columbia University because of the retirement of the previous project director.