Category: Government Actions

Shapiro Administration Announces New Managed Care Organization Joining CHIP Network, Offering More Affordable Health Care Options for PA Children and Families (January 8, 2026)

On January 8, 2026, the Pennsylvania Department of Human Services (DHS) announced that WellKids by PA Health & Wellness will join the network of managed care organizations (MCOs) offering health coverage through the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP). This addition follows the first CHIP re-procurement since 2013 and expands the number of affordable health coverage options available for children across Pennsylvania.

CHIP is a health insurance program for children and teens who are not eligible for Medicaid. CHIP provides affordable or no-cost health coverage through age 19. CHIP covers essential care like routine check-ups and well visits, immunizations, prescriptions, emergency care, mental health services, and dental, vision, and hearing screenings and care.

A family’s income determines the monthly cost of coverage, and no family makes too much for CHIP coverage. When families apply for CHIP for their children, they can pick a CHIP insurance plan that best meets their needs.

PA Heath & Wellness, a subsidiary of Centene Corporation, was newly selected as an MCO for CHIP and will operate under the brand name WellKids by PA Health & Wellness. Leveraging its experience as a Medicaid MCO, including participation in Pennsylvania’s Community HealthChoices program, PA Health & Wellness will serve all counties across the Commonwealth.

WellKids by PA Health & Wellness will provide a full range of services, including preventive, routine, urgent, and emergency care for medical and behavioral health, as well as dental, vision, and pharmacy services.

PA Heath & Wellness has achieved National Committee for Quality Assurance accreditation, including Health Equity Accreditation, demonstrating a strong commitment to quality and equitable care.

Effective January 2026, CHIP will operate with a network of nine MCOs: Aetna, Capital Blue Cross, Geisinger Health Plan, Health Partners Plan, Highmark, Keystone First, United Healthcare, UPMC, and PA Health & Wellness. These MCOs will provide comprehensive health care coverage for eligible children statewide.

For more information about WellKids by PA Health & Wellness, call 1-855-445-1920 or visit the PA Health & Wellness website.

For more information, including how to apply for CHIP, visit DHS’ website.

Due to Gov’s Executive Order Federal Changes Don’t Impact Vaccine Access, Recommendations for PA’s Children (January 8, 2026)

As a result of Governor Shapiro’s Executive Order, there are no changes to vaccine access and recommendations for Pennsylvania children. The Executive Order is in keeping with medical experts, trusting science, and supporting evidence-based vaccine guidance. In fact, the Shapiro Administration is continuing to recommend following the vaccine schedule for children developed by the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) to protect children from vaccine-prevented diseases.

The PA Department of Health (PDH) is working with physicians across the Commonwealth to create a series of short social media videos on Facebook, X, Instagram, and YouTube to provide health care providers’ perspectives on the value of vaccines that are available to prevent diseases that previously caused many more patients to experience severe illness and death.

In October 2025, Governor Shapiro signed Executive Order 2025-02, which protects access to life-saving, evidence-based vaccinations in Pennsylvania, protecting families’ freedoms to make their own informed health care decision. The Executive Order:
-Requires state agencies to align vaccine guidance with trusted medical experts;
-Ensures coverage of recommended vaccines through private insurance to the fullest extent of the Pennsylvania Insurance Department’s authority;
-Directs the Department of Human Services to take necessary steps, in accordance with law, to ensure coverage of recommended vaccines through Medicaid;
-Establishes a Vaccine Education Workgroup to strengthen communication and combat misinformation;
-Directs the Departments of Aging and Education to ensure older adults and schools have access to evidence-based guidance on vaccines; and,
-Launches www.pa.gov/vaccines as a centralized vaccine resource for Pennsylvania residents.

For more information on vaccinations in Pennsylvania, visit www.pa.gov/vaccines.

CDC Weakens U.S. Guidance on Childhood Vaccinations in Line with White House Directive (January 7, 2026)

In a drastic and unprecedented decision that was made in response to a directive from President Donald Trump, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) will now universally recommend 11 vaccines instead of the previous 17, a move that the Department for Health and Human Services said would better align the U.S. schedule with those of certain other wealthy nations. The decision is effective immediately.

The agency will continue endorsing immunizations against “diseases for which there is international consensus,” among them polio and measles. However, shots for other infections, such as respiratory syncytial virus (RSV), meningitis, and hepatitis A and B, will only be recommended for “high-risk groups,” while vaccines for flu, COVID and rotavirus would be given through “shared clinical decision-making.”

Although the  new recommendations are not a mandate, as individual states craft their own vaccine requirements, CDC’s guidance is expected to influence statewide decisions.

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USDA Report Shows 14.1 Million Children Experienced Food Insecurity, But Agency Plans to Stop Providing Such Data (January 7, 2026)

Food insecurity among households with children slightly rose between 2023 and 2024, according to recently released data from an annual report on household food security released by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA). According to the report, in 2024 14.1 million children lived in households experiencing food insecurity. That is an increased over 2023, when 13.8 million children lived in households experiencing food insecurity. Both numbers are a sharp increase over 2019, when 10.7 million children lived in households experiencing food insecurity.

Food-insecure households are defined by the USDA as those that have experienced difficulty at some point during the year to provide “enough food for all their members because of a lack of resources.”

The annual USDA report will be the last unless Congress intervenes, since the agency announced in September that it will no longer produce future studies. In that announcement, the USDA said “these redundant, costly, politicized, and extraneous studies do nothing more than fear monger.”

Click here for more from K-12 Dive.

HHS Terminates Millions in Grants to AAP (January 2, 2026)

The US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has terminated several multimillion-dollar grants to the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) following the association’s criticisms of the policies of the health secretary, Robert F Kennedy Jr.

The funding cuts, which affect projects focused on issues including fetal alcohol spectrum disorders and early identification of autism, were first reported by the Washington Post and made without prior notice to the AAP.

An HHS spokesperson, Andrew Nixon, told the Washington Post that the grants were terminated because they no longer aligned with departmental priorities. The Guardian has contacted HHS for comment.

HHS terminated the funding after noting that the AAP’s materials used what the department characterized as “identity-based language”, including references to racial disparities and the term “pregnant people”, according to administration officials cited by the Washington Post.

Click here for more from the Washington Post.