Many Medicaid-eligible women do not participate in the maternal and child health services available in the City of Chicago. Illinois state government provides contact information to community-based agencies for their use in conducting outreach to these women. Nevertheless, community-based service providers have offered many anecdotal explanations for this low level of participation. To systematically gather information on the effort required to contact Medicaid- eligible women and to obtain their perceptions on barriers to participation, the Illinois Department of Human Services commissioned a survey of 2,000 Medicaid-eligible women who had not enrolled in either of two major maternal and child health programs, WIC, and Family Case Management. Initially, as many as ten attempts were made to contact subjects by telephone. Home visits were attempted to contact those who could not be reached by telephone. If the subject had moved, informants were asked for new addresses or telephone numbers. A gift certificate was provided to everyone completing an interview. Contrary to anecdotal explanations, 36 percent of these women were contacted after an average of 3.3 telephone calls or home visits. The most frequently cited barriers to program participation were the need for child care and the length of waiting times at providers’ offices. Additional analyses of the effort required to contact subjects and the perceived barriers to program participation will be presented.
Learning Objectives: 1. Examine the effort required to contact "hard-to-reach" Medicaid-eligible women in an urban area. 2. Describe the barriers to utilization of WIC and FCM perceived by women who are not engaged in services.
Keywords: Outreach Programs, Barriers to Care
Presenting author's disclosure statement:
Organization/institution whose products or services will be discussed: None
I do not have any significant financial interest/arrangement or affiliation with any organization/institution whose products or services are being discussed in this session.