In the waning days of 2012, Congress took the welcome step of extending the Express Lane Eligibility (ELE) option, lending further support to state efforts to deploy data-driven enrollment strategies under the Affordable Care Act (ACA). Since the option was granted in 2009, states have used the strategy to help large numbers of children obtain coverage.

The ELE option had been scheduled to sunset in September 2013, along with other provisions in the authorizing legislation. Now, with a year’s extension (through September 2014), the option gains further traction as a means to help states get up and running for 2014.

Numerous circumstances exist in which a state might want to leverage ELE to use the data, findings, and connections that other public programs have with families as a means for getting them into health coverage. Among other uses, ELE can help states accomplish:

• targeted outreach and pre-enrollment of parents whose children participate in Medicaid and CHIP;
• automatic enrollment of specific categories of children, such as those aging out of foster care who will be gaining eligibility in 2014; and
• providing a data-driven enrollment strategy to help families for whom no Modified Adjusted Gross Income (MAGI) is available.

We encourage states to take a look at the ELE opportunity, now, as they move quickly toward 2014. For further information about states’ experiences with ELE, see NASHP’s new report.