Ohio Association of Foodbanks will operate a collaborative in Ohio to perform the objectives of Connecting Kids to Coverage Outreach and Enrollment Cooperative Agreements. - The Ohio Association of Foodbanks (OAF) will serve as the lead applicant for the OAF Connecting Kids to Coverage (CKC) Collaborative. The OAF CKC Collaborative will be comprised of OAF and three of its member foodbanks who will serve as subrecipients: Freestore Foodbank in Cincinnati (FSFB), Greater Cleveland Food Bank (GCFB) in Cleveland, and Mid-Ohio Food Collective (MOFC) in Columbus. The goal of this project is to reduce the number of children who are uninsured in Ohio by providing outreach, enrollment, and renewal assistance to Medicaid/CHIP-eligible children, parents, and pregnant women throughout the state. The OAF CKC Collaborative will target Ohio’s approximately 130,648 uninsured children by providing outreach and enrollment services in 34 counties in Ohio, with an emphasis on Ohio’s 3 most populous cities, and will also provide virtual services to the entire state. The OAF CKC Collaborative project goals for year 1 include enrolling and retaining 558 children, 195 parents, and 133 pregnant women in Ohio Medicaid/CHIP coverage. Subrecipient foodbanks will provide targeted assistance, engage in outreach and education, and leverage existing and new partnerships with community-based organizations that serve the target populations. The OAF CKC Collaborative members have been strategically selected to provide outreach and enrollment assistance to the targeted populations and have established partnerships to help them effectively reach and serve the Medicaid/CHIP-eligible population. The OAF CKC Collaborative will use continuous quality improvement strategies to provide oversight for the project, modify strategies as needed, and ensure efficient use of funding. OAF will ensure program integrity, efficiency, and effectiveness through compliance monitoring. The total budget for this project for five years is $2,990,120. CKC funds will be used to provide outreach and enrollment assistance to Medicaid/CHIP-eligible children, parents, and pregnant women. The OAF CKC Collaborative will use program funds to pay salary, wages, and fringe benefits for each subrecipient to employ Project Directors and enrollment specialists working on objectives of the project. OAF will utilize CKC funds for staff to oversee, support, and monitor the OAF CKC Collaborative, supplies, and travel throughout Ohio for OAF CKC Collaborative events and trainings. Funds will also be used to conduct four marketing campaigns to raise awareness of health insurance options and connect eligible families with enrollment specialists throughout the state. Funds will also support outreach and enrollment assistance with the input of community experts, the Consumer Advisory Board. With funding from this cooperative agreement, OAF will continue its successful work under its previous agreement, CMS-2Y2-22-001, to reach more Ohio children by expanding the program from Franklin County (Columbus) and central Ohio to the other largest metropolitan areas in the state, Cuyahoga County (Cleveland) and Hamilton County (Cincinnati). Under the previous agreement, which is ongoing as of the submission date of this application packet, OAF is on track to exceed its new enrollment goals for children and pregnant women for the second consecutive year. OAF will continue to process a high volume of Medicaid/CHIP applications and lean into the success of identifying new applicants for Medicaid/CHIP enrollments.
