Using Data to Improve Affordable Care Act Outreach, Education, and Enrollment Assistance Strategies for Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander Communities

Asian Americans, Native Hawaiians, and Pacific Islanders (AAs and NHPIs) faced significant enrollment challenges applying for health insurance coverage under the Affordable Care Act (ACA) due to language barriers and other factors.  Beginning in 2013, the Asian & Pacific Islander Health Forum (APIAHF) co-convened a national collaborative of organizations (known as “Action for Health Justice”) focused on reaching and educating AAs and NHPIs about health insurance coverage options under the ACA.   As part of this collaborative, APIAHF provided support to 14 community-based organizations (CBOs) in 16 states for their outreach, education, and enrollment efforts.  During the open enrollment periods, each CBO collected demographic data on clients that they assisted.  Variables collected included age, sex, ethnicity, primary spoken and written language, insurance status, and services provided to client.  During the first open enrollment period, data was collected for 6,789 clients and showed that 68% were previously uninsured and 87% were clients whose primary language was not English.  Collectively, the CBOs provided assistance to over 40 different ethnic groups speaking over 50 different languages.  Almost half of the clients heard about the CBO’s enrollment assistance services through a family member or friend.

This presentation will highlight the data collected from these client surveys, and show how the data was used by the CBOs to improve their outreach strategies during subsequent enrollment periods.  We will also illustrate how CBOs used the data to better identify their service populations when applying for grant funding.