Reaching eligible children for state-funded child health insurance programs requires creative approaches that build on existing resources. Clinic data from 1995 indicated that 80% of the children, age 0-12, who obtained their immunizations from New York City Department of Health (NYCDOH) immunization clinics were uninsured and from immigrant families earning significantly below the poverty level. To address this public health issue, NYCDOH initiated a pilot project called Every Child By the Year 2000 (ECY2000) which outstationed multilingual public health educators at immunization clinics to identify eligible children and assisted families to apply for New York State’s child health insurance programs, Child Health Plus (CHP) or Medicaid. This study is an outcome evaluation of the project’s effectiveness in conducting outreach activities. Data on demographics, enrollment and insurance status, and primary care utilization were obtained via parent telephone surveys. A total of 1,212 families were assisted throughout the pilot period, of which 424 families completed a survey. For these families, 38% were enrolled into CHP, 30% were enrolled into Medicaid, 3% had private insurance and 29% were uninsured. Although ECY2000 efforts reached the targeted population, an analysis of personal and system-based barriers to enrollment and variations in primary care utilization suggest that follow-up throughout the application, enrollment and service delivery process would have enabled more families navigate their way towards application completion and appropriate health service utilization. This presentation will offer methodologies for measuring quality improvement and conducting outcome evaluation to help improve child health insurance outreach programs and policy issues to consider.
Learning Objectives: At the conclusion of the presentation, participants would be able to describe measurable criteria for evaluating the effectiveness of SCHIP/Medicaid outreach programs and articulate critical issues to consider when designing and implementing child health insurance outreach and enrollment initiatives
Keywords: Child Health, Evaluation
Presenting author's disclosure statement:
Organization/institution whose products or services will be discussed: None
I do not have any significant financial interest/arrangement or affiliation with any organization/institution whose products or services are being discussed in this session.