142nd APHA Annual Meeting and Exposition

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ACA Navigators and the use of social media in outreach campaigns

142nd APHA Annual Meeting and Exposition (November 15 - November 19, 2014): http://www.apha.org/events-and-meetings/annual
Tuesday, November 18, 2014 : 3:24 PM - 3:42 PM

Michele Thornton, M.B.A. - Health Sector Management, Doctoral Student , School of Public Health - Health Policy & Administration, University of Illinois - Chicago, Chicago, IL
Audio (mp3) recording Recorded Presentation (mp4)
Background: The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (2010) spurred the creation of a new health outreach workforce – ACA Navigators and In Person Assisters. Duties of this workforce include: offering expertise and education on eligibility, enrollment, and coverage details for each health insurance option; facilitation of the enrollment process and providing culturally and linguistically appropriate services.  Navigators and Assisters focus their efforts on the previously uninsured and hard to reach populations.  The outreach effort in Illinois leveraged several different social media strategies to meet these expectations.  In addition to their direct outreach to enrollees, they also report reliance on a unique “HelpHub” networking site dedicated to connecting Illinois Navigators with their peers and policy experts to offer accurate in-depth assistance to their clients.

Methods: This study employs a mixed methods approach to analyze data collected in an online-based follow up survey sent to all certified navigators in Illinois. We include qualitative analysis of the type and depth of their use of social media and the HelpHub site.  Additionally, using demographic information that was previously collected – a multivariate regression is used to explore the relationship between navigator specific covariates, their use of social media, and early indicators of success in outreach and enrollment in ACA insurance coverage.  

Results: Initial results suggest that ACA navigators that combine social media tools with traditional outreach methods report greater understanding of their role and higher self-reported enrollment success than their peers that do not leverage these similar strategies.

Learning Areas:

Administer health education strategies, interventions and programs
Advocacy for health and health education
Communication and informatics
Implementation of health education strategies, interventions and programs
Planning of health education strategies, interventions, and programs
Public health or related public policy

Learning Objectives:
Discuss the impact of social media education and outreach on enrollment of the uninsured and engagement of hard to reach populations. Identify key findings to improve health promotion efforts using new media tools and create best practices for future Navigators and outreach workers.

Keyword(s): Affordable Care Act, Social Media

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

Qualified on the content I am responsible for because: The University of Illinois - Chicago was the contracted provider of training and evaluation of the ACA Navigator/Assister grantee program in Illinois. Through this partnership, I wrote curriculum and trained more than 1800 participants leading up to open enrollment in 2013-2104. Additionally, I have been able to administer several follow-up survey instruments to gain knowledge about their demographics, the methods they have used in outreach and the ongoing successes and challenges they are experiencing.
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.

Back to: 4357.0: Promising Interventions using Social Media (organized by HCWG)