AltaMed Health Services Corporation and its collaborative partner, Children’s Hospital of Los Angeles, are requesting $1,499,956 over a three-year period to deploy Connecting Kids to Coverage (CKC) outreach and enrollment activities that will target uninsured children, their families, and pregnant women in heavily Latino communities in East Los Angeles, South Los Angeles, and Downtown/Metro areas in Los Angeles County as well as in north Orange County (OC). Of the 33,000 uninsured children in Los Angeles County in 2018, 76% (25,000) are Latino—the most impacted race/ethnic group in LA County. Like in Los Angeles County, Latino children have the highest uninsured rates among all racial/ethnic groups in Orange County at 5.2% (17,510) uninsured in 2019.
AltaMed and CHLA will provide year-round outreach and application assistance promoted by regional CKC messaging to drive enrollment of eligible, uninsured children, families, and pregnant women in Medi-Cal. Evidence-based strategies and approaches with demonstrated success will be deployed, including components promoted by CMS: (i) Bridge Disparities among Latino Children in safety-net communities; (ii) School-Based Outreach by expanding the nature of existing formal collaborations with over 225 schools in predominantly brown communities in Los Angeles and Orange Counties; (iii) Provide 1:1 Application & Renewal Assistance in Spanish, in-person and virtually, to help families navigate the process through to approval and provider selection; (iv) Leverage Existing and Cultivating New Partnerships with community-based, family-serving organizations and local businesses in heavily Latino communities for education/outreach; (v) Outreach to Pregnant Women at hospitals; (vi) Address social determinants of health (SDOH) by bridging families to Health Equity Navigators (AltaMed) and Community Ambassadors/Promotoras (CHLA) who offer supports and community resources navigation to mitigate barriers to care; and (vii) Strong messaging year-round including open enrollment, free application assistance, and allaying fears about public charge.
Over a three-year period, the proposed outreach and enrollment project will result in:
• 1,800 Medi-Cal applications submitted for children, with 1,200 children newly enrolled;
• 840 Medi-Cal applications submitted for parents, with 420 parents newly enrolled; and
• 360 Medi-Cal applications submitted for pregnant women, with 180 pregnant women newly enrolled.
As lead applicant, AltaMed is a 501(c)3 Federally Qualified Health Center founded in 1969 with the mission “to eliminate disparities in health care access and outcomes by providing superior quality health and human services through an integrated world-class delivery system for Latino, multi-ethnic and underserved communities in Southern California”. It operates 28 clinics serving as a medical home to 257,000 primarily Latino individuals across Los Angeles and Orange Counties. AltaMed and CHLA share a mission as regionally-prominent providers in underserved communities, creating a natural partnership. Both offer medical services and health education programs responsive to target family needs to support positive health outcomes, including primary care and pediatric sub-specialty care.
