The 131st Annual Meeting (November 15-19, 2003) of APHA

Abstract #57464

Dana C. Hughes, DrPH, Institute for Health Policy Studies; Department of Family and Community Medicine, University of California, San Francisco, 3333 California St., Suite 265, San Francisco, CA 94143, 415-476-0780, dhughes@itsa.ucsf.edu

Federal and state budget cuts have severely limited the ability of county eligibility workers to conduct enrollment and re-enrollment among children in public insurance programs. CORE (County Outreach, Retention and Enrollment) is a project of six California counties working together to streamline their enrollment and retention processes for Healthy Families and Medi-Cal (California’s SCHIP and Medicaid programs, respectively). The goals of the project are to improve enrollment and retention processes in effort to support clients, increase enrollment and retention and lighten the workload of staff. The CORE counties undertook three projects utilizing Quality Improvement (QI) methods: 1. Ensuring continuous coverage through improved re-enrollment processes; 2. Assisting families complete the application (at first submission); and 3. Providing families with effective information about how, why and where to obtain health care. These topics reflect system-wide, high-leverage opportunities to produce significant and sustainable enrollment gains in the Healthy Families and Medi-Cal. The Quality Improvement methods being utilized are based on data-driven decision making, collaboration and assessment of progress based on data.

This session will present an overview of CORE, describe the process improvements introduced by the counties and present data demonstrating the counties successes. (Data are currently preliminary and are not included here.)

Learning Objectives:

At the conclusion of the session, the participants will be able to
• Describe the purpose, approach and methodology of CORE (County, Outreach, Retention and Enrollment);
• Articulate the various approaches CORE counties used to improve their processes for enrolling and retaining children in public insurance programs;
• Discuss the documented successes (and challenges) CORE counties experienced in the project;
• Identify ways in which this approach (or the specific process improvements of CORE counties) could be applied in their counties.

Keywords: Quality Improvement,

Related Web page: www.coreproject.org

Presenting author's disclosure statement:
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.