Healthsource of ohio, a federally qualified health center, proposes to expand its outreach and enrollment program to reach and cover children and their families under medicaid. - healthsource of…

Healthsource of ohio, a federally qualified health center, proposes to expand its outreach and enrollment program to reach and cover children and their families under medicaid. - healthsource of ohio (HSO) is a private, not-for-profit federally qualified health center that operates in 8 counties throughout southwest appalachia ohio. IT offers comprehensive primary care including medical, dental, vision, behavioral health, school-based health and pharmacy services and has over 80,000 active patients. HSO also has an active outreach and enrollment team of CMS certified assistance counselors (CAC) that helps individuals throughout the service area and beyond with appropriate health care coverage under marketplace and medicaid. Under this funding opportunity, HSO proposes to increase its staff to include 3 FTE medicaid outreach specialist and 1 FTE project coordinator to meet the goal of increased enrollment in medicaid coverage for children, adults and pregnant individuals. HSO is uniquely positioned to address the need for medicaid enrollment throughout its service area with its health centers delivering care to this vulnerable population. Moreover, over its 45 years of operation, IT has developed a wide network of community stakeholders who also serve the same population. Under the CMS cooperative agreement, the medicaid outreach team will be able to increase their focus on school-based outreach to engage with school administration, educators, staff, and parent volunteers who are, themselves, trusted individuals in these settings. These relationships will enable the medicaid outreach team to identify eligible children and families for enrollment. To accomplish this, HSO will collaboratively develop procedures with school staff for implementation, using this process to strengthen established and new relationships with school leaders to deliver outreach and enrollment assistance and education to families in need. There is compelling need for medicaid coverage for uninsured children throughout southwestern appalachia ohio. As a community health center that provides access to comprehensive primary care throughout the service area, HSO understands the barriers and cultural reluctance for assistance held by many. We also have the staff experience and expertise in outreach and enrollment and have developed a sound workplan to meet coverage goals. We have developed a 3-year budget that will allow US to have considerable impact on medicaid enrollment efforts for these children and families. With coverage, we know they are more likely to live healthy, thriving lives.