243726 Utility of tele-insurance for increased health insurance coverage of children: The case of Florida Covering Kids & Families

Monday, October 31, 2011

Abraham Salinas, MD, MPH , Department of Community and Family Health, University of South Florida, Lakeland, FL
Hamisu Salihu, MD, PhD , Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, University of South Florida, College of Public Health, Tampa, FL
Emanny Sanchez, BS , Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, University of South Florida, College of Public Health, Tampa, FL
Linda A. Detman, PhD , The Lawton and Rhea Chiles Center for Healthy Mothers and Babies, University of South Florida, Tampa, FL
Jodi Ray, MA , The Lawton and Rhea Chiles Center for Healthy Mothers and Babies, University of South Florida, Tampa, FL
  
Background: Nearly 800,000 uninsured children reside in Florida, and of those, more than 500,000 may qualify for Florida KidCare, the state's health insurance plan for children. The Florida Covering Kids & Families Coalition (FL-CKF) dedicates efforts to engage hard-to-reach communities and to disseminate information about the existence of Florida KidCare. Innovative technology that can shorten the length of time to enroll or renew a family, while ensuring accountability to stakeholders, can greatly enhance the capabilities of front-line community partners in increasing enrollment rates. Purpose: To demonstrate the utility of an electronic information system to compile and transmit application information to relevant stakeholders. Methods: The information needs of the different stakeholders from the FL-CKF coalition determined the inputs and outputs necessary to design and implement an Electronic Information System (EIS). A user-friendly interface utilizing online survey software in an innovative way for data collection, database design, and reporting, was pilot tested in the community. Baseline measures were compared with the new improved system. Results: An automated system was created to improve data collection, processing, and generation of state-of-the art reports that satisfied the information needs of the different stakeholders in an efficient manner. The system was tailored to the community to accelerate and facilitate the approval and renewal process while increasing the accountability of partnering community programs. This resulted in a community-accessible EIS, FL-CKF Tele-Insurance, which was used to capture and monitor client enrollment and evaluate program effectiveness. Conclusions: The design of a community-accessible EIS, FL-CKF Tele-insurance, provides an opportunity for greater health insurance coverage for children of low-income parents by accelerating the application process. It demonstrates great potential in data quality and effectiveness of children health insurance enrollment activities in Florida, as compared to paper-based methods.

Learning Areas:
Communication and informatics
Conduct evaluation related to programs, research, and other areas of practice

Learning Objectives:
1.Demonstrate the utility of tele-insurance in supporting community efforts to increase enrollment of children in the Florida’s health insurance plan for children. 2.Describe the efficiency and feasibility of implementing user-friendly technology based systems at the level of community-based organizations. 3.Evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of implementing an EIS using online survey software in existing community-based programs.

Keywords: Telehealth, Health Insurance

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

Qualified on the content I am responsible for because: I developed and piloted the information system that will be presented. As a Doctoral Candidate for the PhD Degree in Public Health, I have acquired expertise in online survey development,and the implementation of mixed methods research utilizing informatics technologies. I have also designed and managed online databases in public health research projects.
Any relevant financial relationships? No

I agree to comply with the American Public Health Association Conflict of Interest and Commercial Support Guidelines, and to disclose to the participants any off-label or experimental uses of a commercial product or service discussed in my presentation.

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