On February 4, 2009, President Obama signed the Children’s Health Insurance Program Reauthorization Act (CHIPRA) of 2009. CHIPRA includes a requirement that the Departments of Labor and Health and Human Services develop a model notice for employers to use to inform employees of potential opportunities currently available in the State in which the employee resides for group health plan premium assistance under Medicaid and the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP). The Department of Labor was required to provide the model notice to employers within one year of CHIPRA’s enactment.

Through a notice in the February 4, 2010 FEDERAL REGISTER, the Department’s Employee Benefits Security Administration (EBSA) announces the availability of the Model Employer CHIP Notice. The notice provides the “form and content of notice” as well as the “timing and delivery of the notice” while outlining the requirements for addition of state-specific information.

To quickly generate and send this (or any future) notices to your employees, use the Employee Correspondence Wizard (ECW) in Ascentis HR.  Create your notice or use the template provided by the Department of Labor here for the Model Employer CHIP notice. Once your notice has been built, open ECW from Employee Manager and create a new correspondence batch. By walking through the ECW you can print or email the notice to all employees you select. Lastly, select to attach the notice to each employee’s record through the ECW as a note. Now your work with this notice is done!

For detailed instructions on using the ECW see the “Employee Correspondence Wizard” section of the Help documentation included in Ascentis HR.