Project Name: Outreach and Enrollment Best Practices

Project Overview:

Community Health of South Florida, Inc. (CHI) provided comprehensive and effective outreach, eligibility and enrollment services through a multi-faceted cross-cultural program to its patients, and others who sought assistance from CHI, targeting specific vulnerable populations and geographic communities. Outreach focused on homeless persons, migrant and seasonal farmworkers, college students, low-income adults, and low-income school children.

The project goals addressed the best practice categories identified by Enroll America:

  1. Investing in outreach staff;
  2. Technology and outreach materials;
  3. Maximizing staff impact;
  4. Keeping patients enrolled and insured; and
  5. Seeking resources to ensure stability.

Key Grant Activities:

  • Hiring a certified Lead Outreach Worker/Program Coordinator to oversee training and programming of outreach workers as well as other staff across the organization including call center employees, providers, clinical support staff, reception staff, managers, and senior leadership.
  • Training outreach staff in conjunction with Florida Department of Children and Families to qualify as Certified Application Counselors.
  • Developing a robust data collection tool and data tracking system for outreach, eligibility and enrollment assistance efforts.
  • Developing a comprehensive marketing campaign targeting Miami-Dade County as well as Monroe and Broward Counties.
  • Advertising enrollment services throughout the local Miami-Dade County Public Transportation system including 14 CHI-operated buses, and on radio stations in English, Spanish, and Haitian Creole; and translating flyers into Creole and Spanish.
  • Conducting outreach to individuals and families on ACA, and assisting patients in submitting enrollment documents, selecting health providers and with other-enrollment and re-enrollment tasks.

Project Outcomes:

  • CHI conducted outreach to over 40,000 individuals, conducted over 14,000 eligibility determinations and enrolled nearly 13,000 people in health care coverage, working collaboratively with numerous partners, including the Department of Children and Families, Miami-Dade Public Schools, Florida Department of Health, and the Coalition of Florida Farmworker Organizations. In addition over 14,000 individuals were contacted for re-enrollment.
  • More than 11,000 new patients were registered for care at the health center.
  • Twelve Community Health Workers were certified by CMS as Certified Application Counselors. In addition, to support the work of the O & E team, 155 staff received ongoing monthly training on outreach, enrollment and Marketplace coverage, as well as on issues related to Medicaid, CHIP and data collection.
  • Over 550 health fairs and enrollment events attracted 10,500 people who were offered health insurance education and assistance as well as access to health awareness and prevention services.
  • The data collection tool enabled data reporting for all encounters, regardless of whether the client was a patient or not. Operational definitions and coding for data entry were created to ensure system-wide accuracy.

About the Grantee:

Community Health of South Florida, Inc. (CHI) is a nonprofit Federally Qualified Health Center Providing comprehensive primary care services, including oral health and behavioral Health care services, to medically underserved residents of Miami-Dade and Monroe Counties in southern Florida for more than 42 years. In 2013, CHI provided clinic visits to 68,504 261,848 patients. CHI operates 11 primary health centers and 30 school-based health programs.

http://www.chisouthfl.org/