Hawaii Health Navigators - The Legal Aid Society of Hawaii, a community based nonprofit law firm, has empowered low-income and disadvantaged people throughout Hawaii for over 70 years. It is the only civil legal services provider in the state, and one of the few nonprofits, with statewide coverage through 10 offices, from Lanai to urban Honolulu. It provides assistance to clients facing family, housing, consumer, public benefits, child welfare, elder law, and immigration issues.
LASH is applying for the third and final year (continuation) of the 36-month project begun in 2021 to provide outreach, education, and health insurance enrollment assistance to consumers throughout the state of Hawaii. LASH seeks funding of $294,882 for this 12-month period to support personnel, fringe benefits, travel, interpretation, communications, and indirect expenses for the project. LASH is not proposing any subrecipients for this project.
LASH will continue to provide services to all uninsured and underinsured consumers in Hawaii. The project will continue to focus on providing services to consumers in vulnerable and "left behind" populations, including limited English proficient, consumers with disabilities, homeless populations, and other vulnerable consumers. During the current Navigator project, project staff have participated in more than 120 outreach events and have reached more than 150 consumers in under a year, 92 of whom had limited English proficiency. The State of Hawaii is composed of approximately 40% immigrants, both long-term and new. In Year 3, this project will continue to focus on consumers whose incomes are below 250% of the federal poverty level, immigrants, and homeless populations of uninsured. However, income, assets, and national origin will not be a determinant to assess an individual's eligibility for assistance through this project, and all those in need of assistance will be helped.
During this third 12-month period of the project, LASH will accomplish the following goals: Provide health insurance literacy to 200 consumers in person or by phone; provide enrollment assistance to 100 consumers; provide one-on-one appointments to 500 consumers; perform outreach and attend public education activities, including on social media, that reach a total of 5,000 potential consumers.
LASH will ensure language accessibility by utilizing interpreters and translators throughout the delivery of services. Outreach materials and social media may also be translated into key languages to target specific communities with high volumes of uninsured or underinsured consumers. LASH will provide services throughout the state to decrease physical barriers to accessing services, and LASH Navigators will also help consumers with varying levels of education and financial and health literacy, understanding coverage, updating applications, and other duties listed under 45CFR155.210e9, as well as working with MedQUEST to help transition consumers from Medicaid to Marketplace plans.
This Navigator Project will utilize 3.0 full-time equivalent Navigators and 0.5 Paralegals to provide outreach, education, and assistance throughout Hawaii to over 500 consumers.
