Yesterday, the President signed H.R. 2, the Medicare Access and CHIP Reauthorization Act of 2015, which passed both the House and Senate with overwhelming bipartisan support. Not only will the Medicare Access and CHIP Reauthorization Act of 2015 reform Medicare’s physician payment system to incentivize quality and value and extend the Children’s Health Insurance Program, it also includes a two-year extension of the Maternal, Infant, and Early Childhood Home Visiting Program (“Home Visiting”). The Home Visiting program, administered by the Department of Health and Human Services, funds States, territories, and tribal entities to develop and implement voluntary, evidence-based home visitation programs in which families that choose to participate receive advice, guidance, and other help from nurses, social workers, or other trained professionals during pregnancy and the first years of a child’s life.
The Home Visiting program builds upon decades of scientific research showing that home visits improve the lives of children and families by preventing child abuse and neglect, supporting positive parenting, improving maternal and child health, and promoting child development and school readiness. This research also shows that evidence-based approaches can provide a positive return on investment to society. By law, Home Visiting Program grantees must spend the majority of their grants to implement models that have been shown to improve child health and to be cost effective, with up to 25 percent of funding available to try out and rigorously evaluate other promising approaches.