Improved Children's Health Coverage Act of 1998

[AI summary unavailable — showing source text] Improved Children's Health Coverage Act of 1998 - Amends titles XIX (Medicaid) and XXI (Children's Health Insurance Program) (CHIP) of the Social Security Act (SSA) to mandate: (1) development and use of a uniform, simplified application form for establishing eligibility for Medicaid and CHIP benefits; (2) coordinated enrollment processes; and (3) timely response to inquiries received through a national toll-free telephone number for information on children's coverage under such programs. Requires the Secretary of Health and Human Services to establish such number. (Sec. 2) Declares the costs to administer such development and use to be a reasonable cost to administer a State's CHIP plan regardless of whether such expenditures might also be related to the administration of SSA title XIX. Eliminates certain limitations from applying to such administrative costs. Requires the Secretary to permit common administrative expenditures between SSA titles XIX and XXI to be paid for under SSA title XXI. Mandates periodic independent State audits of enrollment processes to determine the extent to which children provided CHIP assistance are eligible for Medicaid assistance (and, therefore, sho…