In this final installment of our series on Medicaid and CHIP outreach, we look at community-based assistance programs and resources in each state. Personalized assistance is critical to helping individuals and families find and access support to navigate confusing processes.
CCF’s state outreach snapshot found state-supported outreach assistance programs in 30 states. Most, states with these programs, though not all, also have an assister locator (24) to help users find assistance in their local communities. Some locator tools are simple lists, while others have interactive tools allowing for precise results. For example, Colorado’s assistance program locations are called Certified Application Assistance Sites and their state Medicaid department operates this interactive locator tool.
The snapshot also took note of assister locators hosted by organizations external to the state, typically by a nonprofit organization or navigator entity. Many of these external locators are funded entirely or in part by federal Health Insurance Marketplace navigator grants, as indicated by funding statements on webpages or use of the federal Get Covered Connector widget (see Covering Wisconsin for an example of both).
The snapshot also documents the federal and state-based navigator organizations in each state. Several states have more than one navigator entity, notably Texas has ten federal navigator organizations and Missouri has four. Similarly, Connecting Kids to Coverage grantees were included in this segment of the snapshot. Connecting Kids to Coverage is a national initiative designed to support outreach and enrollment for families with children and teens eligible for Medicaid and CHIP. In the most recent tranche of awardees, there were 43 grants totaling just over $55 million divided among 23 states, with California having the most grantee organizations (8).
The outreach snapshot and this complementary blog series have attempted to document resources available in each state, as well as show where individual states can adopt promising practices from other states, sometimes with little or no cost. Though more resource-intensive than social media, videos, or fliers, community-based assistance programs and marketplace navigators are a vital component of outreach, particularly for first time applicants or those with limited time or means to travel. While there is no single way to successfully implement outreach, community-based assistance programs like these should be the goal of states seeking to ensure that all eligible children and families, particularly vulnerable groups needing extra assistance, can get and stay covered.
