Expanding the health care safety net for uninsured children through a public-private partnership with an HMO: Increasing access and utilization of health services

Public-private partnerships between health care providers, the public and private sectors are emerging nationwide as a strategy for expanding the health care safety net for the medically uninsured. The Medical Care for Children Partnership (MCCP) is a mature public-private partnership that has successfully linked thousands of uninsured children in Fairfax County, Virginia with a medical home. For 20 years, HMO Kaiser Permanente Mid-Atlantic States has been a pivotal partner, increasing MCCP's capacity to provide uninsured children with comprehensive medical care. MCCP's partnership with Kaiser Permanente has demonstrated that a private insurer can successfully partner with a public agency to serve those outside of the health care safety net.

This presentation will provide a model of a public-private partnership between a health maintenance organization (HMO) and a government agency based on 20 years of collaboration and the experience of replicating this partnership in six counties in the Washington metropolitan area. The challenging process of identifying and enrolling uninsured children from a highly transient population will be discussed. Data on MCCP children's utilization of health care services will be compared with that of other charitable care populations within Kaiser. This presentation will also describe how access to medical care is supported by case management; parents' perceptions of access to care and partner contribution to the cost of health care. In summary, this presentation will provide a profile of how one public-private partnership helps uninsured families navigate a fragmented health care system to find a quality medical home for their children.