Tracking the State Children’s Health Insurance Program with Hospital Data: National Baselines,State Variations,and Some Cautions

State and federal agencies are concerned with the impact of the State Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) on the health care of enrolled children. As part of a broad program evaluation, and at relatively low cost, analysts can track data on hospital admissions for ambulatory care sensitive (ACS) conditions. This article uses hospital data for 19 states to calculate baseline ACS rates and to discuss trends and cross-state variations just prior to the start of the CHIPs. A few cautions and limitations are discussed. An unexpected result in the exploration was a substantial increase in the rate of ACS admissions for self-pay and Medicaid-enrolled children during the period of 1990-1995. During that same period, the admission rate for other insured children fell by more than a third. The comparisons across states are meant to be illustrative; they do reveal a relationship between the rate of asthma admissions and the proportion of self-pay plus Medicaid-enrolled cases.