Evaluation of women's and provider's awareness of the South Carolina Medicaid Family Planning Waiver: Implications for policy

CONTEXT: The Medicaid Family Planning Waiver of South Carolina extends family planning coverage to all women with family incomes ≤185% of federal poverty level. Key objectives of the program are to inform and help enroll eligible women in the waiver. Center for Health Services and Policy Research at the University of South Carolina designed and conducted separate surveys for eligible women and providers to obtain information as to their awareness about and services covered by the waiver. METHODS: A telephone survey was conducted in 2006 with eligible women categorized as ‘Participating Women' (n=209) who availed services through the waiver, ‘Enrolled Women' (n=209) who enrolled but did not avail services and ‘Eligible Women' (n=310) who were eligible but did not enroll in the program. Mailed surveys were sent to public-sector providers (n=211), private providers who see Medicaid waiver patients (n=199), and private providers who do not see Medicaid patients at all (n=64). RESULTS: Over 35% of all Enrollees and Eligible women and 14% of Participating women said they did not know about the waiver. A significant source of information about the waiver were ‘family and friends'. The response rate of various providers (52.6% among public providers, 14.1% among private providers who saw Medicaid patients and 7.8% among private providers who did not see Medicaid patients) are likely a measure of awareness of and interest in the waiver program. CONCLUSION: Awareness of the waiver is a key concern. Improved outreach and educational policies are needed to attain the objectives of the waiver.