National Program Staff Visit WV Healthy Kids Coalition
Staff from the Covering Kids and Families National Program
Office visited Charleston on August 28, 29 and 30 to discuss
progress on insuring children through WVCHIP and Medicaid.
West Virginia has made great progress in providing health
care coverage through WVCHIP and Medicaid. According to a
recent survey, more than 94 percent of all West Virginia
children have health insurance coverage. Another 3 percent
are eligible for CHIP or Medicaid but not enrolled.
Ann Marchetti and Judi Cramer of the National Program Office
complimented the Healthy Kids Coalition for the work of the
Coalition and its local outreach projects in getting
children covered. They urged the Coalition to continue to
work within the current system to simplify and coordinate
CHIP and Medicaid as much as possible. One of the goals of
the Coalition, for example, is to have the same card for
both programs.
The Covering Kids and Families Program works in almost every
state and is funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF).
West Virginia has a grant for $700,000 to work on getting
children covered and simplifying and coordinating state
health care programs for children. With support from RWJF,
the Claude Worthington Benedum Foundation, and the Sisters
of Saint Joseph Charitable Fund, and designated federal
dollars, the Healthy Kids Coalition, the West Virginia
Primary Care Association, and the Governor’s Cabinet on
Children and Families have established local outreach
programs in every county.
Next Meeting
The next regular meeting of the WVHKC is scheduled for
1:00-3:00 P.M. on Wednesday, October 16, 2020 at the WV
Hospital Association office in Charleston. The Outreach
Coordinators are meeting at 10:00-12:00 A.M. the same day.
Back-to-School Events Increase Calls
During the month of August 2002, the number of calls to
1-877-KIDS-NOW reached a record-setting 89,819, bringing the
total number of calls to more than 1 million since the
hotline was launched in February 1999. The Health Resources
and Services Administration (HRSA), which maintains the
toll-free line and a related website at
www.insurekidsnow.gov, attributes much of the increase to
the national Covering Kids Back-to-School campaign, which
was initiated with a national press conference in
Washington, DC, on August 1.
According to Joy Kauffman of HRSA's Office of Field
Operations, this year's call volume was nearly 100 percent
higher than calls to the hotline during the same period last
year. Kudos to all Covering Kids projects whose efforts
contributed to this successful effort. The WVHKC
participated in a big way in this national effort with
Governor Wise going door-to-door in many communities; the
outreach coordinators hold more than 40 events throughout
the state to promote the enrollment of children in to the
CHIP and Medicaid programs.
WV Moving to an Internet Application Process
The RAPIDS/Deloitte Staff held a kick-off meeting to
announce a new project designed to support self-service
applications over the Internet for CHIP/PWC services. This
new e-application is called 'inROADS' (Information Network
for Resident On-Line Access and Delivery of Services). The
inROADS technical architecture will be based on the
Pennsylvania COMPASS, which is an online application that is
evolving into a single point of access for social services.
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