Federal Agencies Continue Many Grant-Funded Strategies to Improve Children’s Health

A federal grant program that tested ideas for improving children’s health care quality under Medicaid and the Children's Health Insurance Program (CHIP) resulted in more than half of improvement strategies continuing beyond the six-year grant period, according to an AHRQ-funded study. From 2010-2015, 18 state Medicaid agencies implemented grants authorized by the CHIPRA Quality Demonstration Grant Program. AHRQ-funded research found 57 percent of 115 quality improvement activities were sustained after the grants ended. Quality measure reporting and practice facilitation were among the initiatives most likely to have continued, researchers concluded. Family engagement activities were least likely to continue. Learn more about the national evaluation of the CHIPRA Quality Demonstration Grants Program. Access the study, published in Maternal and Child Health Journal.

National Evaluation of the CHIPRA Quality Demonstration Grant Program

Find information and evaluation reports on State demonstration projects funded by the Children’s Health Insurance Program Reauthorization Act to improve the quality of health care for children enrolled in Medicaid and CHIP.

Three-part image. Part 1: Two female physicians in lab coats are smiling and caring for a young male patient. Part 2: Two smiling parents are running playfully outside with their young son and daughter. Part 3: Three people in black suits are walking up the steps of the U.S. Supreme Court building in Washington, DC.

In February 2010, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) awarded 10 grants, funding 18 States, to improve health care quality and delivery systems for children enrolled in Medicaid and the Children's Health Insurance Program (CHIP). Funded by the Children's Health Insurance Program Reauthorization Act of 2009 (CHIPRA), the Quality Demonstration Grant Program aimed to identify effective, replicable strategies for enhancing quality of care for children. The Demonstration Grant Program ran through 2015. The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality led the national evaluation of this program.

As a group, the 18 demonstration States implemented 52 projects in five general categories:

Using quality measures to improve child health care.
Applying health information technology for quality improvement.
Implementing provider-based delivery models.
Investigating a model format for pediatric electronic health records (EHRs).
Assessing the utility of other innovative approaches to enhance quality.

Through this Web page, you can find information about these projects and the national evaluation. Specifically, you can select the various tabs and information boxes to learn more about:

The projects that each demonstration State implemented (select Learn About the Demonstration States).
The specific projects that were implemented under each of the five categories (select one of the five specific strategies for quality improvement, such as Using the Core Set of Children's Quality Measures).
Reports that the national evaluation team has produced on specific evaluation topics and questions including the final summary and final project report (select What We Learned).
Reports and resources provided by the demonstration States (select Reports from the States).
Our approach to the national evaluation, including the evaluation design and methods (select More about the Evaluation).
New findings, events, and publications from the national and State evaluations (select What's New?).

You can also keep up to date about results from the national and State evaluations by subscribing to our email updates.

To contact the team that conducted the national evaluation of the CHIPRA Quality Demonstration Grant Program, send an email to CHIPRADemoEval@ahrq.hhs.gov.

Please note: This Web site uses the term "national evaluation" to distinguish this evaluation of the entire demonstration program from evaluations commissioned or undertaken by grantees. The word "national" should not be interpreted to mean that findings are representative of the United States as a whole.