WellPoint State Sponsored Business President to Serve on Federal Children's Health Insurance Program Working Group

INDIANAPOLIS, Jan. 13 /PRNewswire/ -- WellPoint (NYSE: WLP) today announced that Kevin Hayden, president of State Sponsored Business has been appointed to serve on the Children's Health Insurance Program (CHIP) Working Group.

Reporting to the Secretary of Health and Human Services and the Secretary of Labor, the CHIP Working Group will be tasked with improving access to coverage under titles XIX and XXI of the Social Security Act for eligible family members of employed individuals who have coverage only for themselves through employer-sponsored group health plans. The CHIP Working Group will develop a model coverage coordination disclosure form to help plan administrators and state agencies assess available publicly-supported coverage and to help coordinate cost-effective options for enrollees of such plans. In addition, the group will identify the barriers to effective coordination of coverage available to families that include both employees of employers that maintain group health plans, and also members who are eligible for medical assistance under title XIX or title XXI.

"The Children's Health Insurance Program Reauthorization Act continues to deliver on the promise of providing our nation's children with access to quality health care," said Hayden.  "I'm excited to join this esteemed group of individuals who will work collaboratively to help ensure children and their families effectively access state funded programs and eliminate barriers that keep children from accessing needed health care."

The CHIP Working Group is comprised of a variety of representatives from the public and private sectors including, Department of Health and Human services, Department of Labor, state Medicaid directors, state directors of the State Children's Health Insurance Program, small business owners, human resource and payroll professionals and health plan administrators.

At WellPoint, Hayden is responsible for leading WellPoint's Medicaid business division which currently serves more than 1.7 million members in 10 states. His career spans more than 23 years in the private and public sectors. Prior to joining WellPoint, he served as Secretary of the Department of Health and Family Services for the State of Wisconsin and was responsible for leading all public health programs and care delivery services for over 900,000 residents. Prior to that, he served as the Wisconsin State Medicaid Director. Most notably, Hayden was a key architect in creating BadgerCare Plus, an innovative program expanding coverage to all children in Wisconsin

About WellPoint, Inc.

WellPoint, Inc. is the largest health benefits company in terms of medical membership in the United States. WellPoint is an independent licensee of the Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association and serves its members as the Blue Cross licensee for California; the Blue Cross and Blue Shield licensee for Colorado, Connecticut, Georgia, Indiana, Kentucky, Maine, Missouri (excluding 30 counties in the Kansas City area), Nevada, New Hampshire, New York (as the Blue Cross Blue Shield licensee in 10 New York City metropolitan and surrounding counties and as the Blue Cross or Blue Cross Blue Shield licensee in selected upstate counties only), Ohio, Virginia (excluding the Northern Virginia suburbs of Washington, D.C.), Wisconsin; and through UniCare.  Additional information about WellPoint is available at www.wellpoint.com.

SOURCE WellPoint, Inc.