Connecting Kids to Coverage HEALTHY KIDS 2025 - Project REACH - Funding Opportunity Number: CMS-3Y3-25-001 CFDA(s): 93.767 Applicant Name: Community Action Corporation of South Texas (CACOST) Descriptive Title of Applicant's Project: Project Retention and Enrollment Assistance for Children’s Healthcare (Project REACH) Community Action Corporation of South Texas (CACOST), a private nonprofit 501 (c)(3) corporation will implement Project REACH (Retention and Enrollment Assistance for Children’s Healthcare) which will conduct outreach and enrollment activities to educate and enroll/renew eligible children in Medicaid/CHIP in South Texas. Project REACH’s service area — a predominantly low-income, Hispanic area with significant healthcare coverage gaps — includes Aransas, Bee, Brooks, Cameron, Duval, Hidalgo, Jim Hogg, Jim Wells, Kleberg, San Patricio, and Willacy counties. CACOST is requesting $3,000,000 over the next five years ($600,000 annually) to secure the personnel and supplies necessary to provide outreach and enrollment services across the 11-county service area. As a direct result of this funding opportunity, over the three-year period, Project REACH’s goal is to assist in submitting 5,025 Medicaid/CHIP new or renewal applications for children with 4,200 (1,520 new enrollments and 2,680 renewals) of those being anticipated to be approved for assistance. No subrecipients or sub-awardees will be used for this project. Project REACH’s outreach and enrollment efforts will focus on educating families about the availability of free or low-cost health coverage under Medicaid and CHIP, identifying children likely to be eligible for these programs, and assisting families to apply for new/renewal coverage. Project staff will provide outreach through one-on-one interaction with community stakeholders, educational presentations at coalition meetings and with organization staff, booths at health fairs and other school/community events, social media, TV commercials, digital advertising, mailouts, and through printed materials. Enrollment activities will occur in-person or via phone with staff assisting with applications at CACOST office locations, community events, community organizations, and at applicant homes as needed. Project REACH will educate and collaborate with intra-agency programs and local community organizations, schools, and coalitions to increase the effectiveness of outreach and enrollment activities. This proposed project would be a continuation of services awarded though Connecting Kids to Coverage HEALTHY KIDS 2022 Outreach and Enrollment Cooperative Agreements (CMS-2Y2-22-001) funding. In the first two and half years of the project, the program helped applicants submit 1,591 with 83.5% of those being renewed. While the program had barriers to achieving its goals in year 1, the program immediately pivoted and in year 2, the program reached 74.3% of its submission goal, 68.8% of its new enrollment goal, and 86.7% of its re-enrollment goal. This momentum is continuing in the final year of the grant.
