Retrieve CHIP eligibility and enrollment data programmatically via the CMS Medicaid/CHIP State Plan Amendment tracking resources

Verified steps

1. CHIP state plan and eligibility policy data is publicly available through Medicaid.gov; access the Medicaid/CHIP State Plan and Waiver documents via the medicaid.gov data downloads or the data.medicaid.gov API portal.
2. Use the data.medicaid.gov Socrata API to query CHIP enrollment datasets: construct a GET request to the dataset endpoint with a Socrata Query Language (SoQL) where clause such as ?$where=state_abbr='TX' to filter by state.
3. Parse enrollment records for state, fiscal_year, chip_enrollment_count, medicaid_enrollment_count, and reporting_period fields to track enrollment trends over time.
4. For real-time CHIP eligibility verification of individual beneficiaries, route requests through the relevant state's Medicaid eligibility system or managed care plan FHIR API (subject to CMS-0057-F compliance timelines) — there is no single federal real-time CHIP eligibility API.
5. Download the CHIP State Plan documents in PDF from medicaid.gov to understand state-specific eligibility income thresholds (expressed as a percentage of FPL) before building income-based pre-screening logic.
6. Use the Medicaid data.medicaid.gov datasets to validate your pre-screening income thresholds against published state eligibility levels annually, as states may submit SPAs (State Plan Amendments) that change income limits.