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Home My WebLink AboutMINUTES - 12052006 - C.130 i sE .L TO: Board of Supervisors - Contra FROM: Family and Human Services CommitteeeCosta DATE: December 5, 2006 - _-U-" �� County a coun' .7 SUBJECT: Children's Health Coverage Review and Update C SPECIFIC REQUEST(S)OR RECOMMENDATION(S)&BACKGROUND AND JUSTIFICATION RECOMMENDATION: ACCEPT the attached report on the status of the Healthy Families Program and Children's Health Coverage in Contra Costa County as recommended by the Family and Human Services Committee. FISCAL IMPACT: None. CHILDREN'S IMPACT STATEMENT: This report supports all of the community outcomes established in the Children's Report Card: 1) "Children Ready for and Succeeding in School;" 2) "Children and Youth Healthy and Preparing for Productive Adulthood;" 3) "Families that are Economically Self Sufficient;"4) "Families that are Safe, Stable and Nurturing;" and 5) "Communities that are Safe and Provide a High Quality of life for Children and Families." BACKGROUND: On November 6, 2006, the Family and Human Services Committee received an annual status CONTINUED ON ATTACHMENT:—X—YES SIG TURE: _ COMMENDATION OF COUNTY ADMINISTRATOR RECOMMENDATION OF BOARD COMMITTEE APPROVE OTHER SIGNATURE(S): ACTION OF BOARD ON / e� / APPROVE AS RECOMMENDED OTHER VOTE OF SUPERVISORS I HEREBY CERTIFY THAT THIS IS A TRUE UNANIMOUS (ABSENT 1 AND CORRECT COPY OF AN ACTION TAKEN AND ENTERED ON THE MINUTES OF THE BOARD AYES: NOES: OF SUPERVISORS ON THE DATE SHOWN. ABSENT: ABSTAIN: p �p S ,/ � �� ATTESTED TA,/� `�'� JOHN CULLEN,CLERK OF THE BOARD OF SUPERVISORS AND COUNTY ADMINISTRATOR Contact Person:Dorothy Sansoe 5-1009 CC: CAO / y HSD BY: 0C�✓l DEPUTY 1 l SUBJECT: CHILDREN'S HEALTH COVERAGE REVIEW AND UPDATE report on Children's Health Coverage. Dr. Wendel Brunner provided an introduction to the report and a brief overview updating the Committee on the outreach, enrollment and retention activities being conducted by the Health Department, and potential new state funding for outreach that may become available. i i County of Contra Costa OFFICE OF THE; COUNTY ADMINISTRATOR MEMORANDUM DATE: November 6, 2006 TO: Family and Human Services Committee FROM: Dorothy Sansoe Sr. Deputy County Administrator SUBJECT: #50—Healthy Families Annual Follow-up RECOMMENDATION: ACCEPT attached report from the Health Services Department, Public Health Division, on the accomplishments of the Healthy Families Program over the past year. FORWARD the report to the Board of Supervisors for their information and acceptance. If you have any questions regarding this,please do not hesitate to contact me at 335-1009. Attachments I Family and Human Services Committee Healthy Families Annual Follow-Up In July 2006, the California Department of Health Services, Medi-Cal Eligibility Branch, received appropriated funds for county targeted outreach, streamlined enrollment, retention and utilization (OERU) activities to increase the number of children in Medi-Cal and Healthy Families. The Medi-Cal Eligibility Branch will be allocating funds to counties based on the following criteria: a) counties with the highest number of eligible but not enrolled children, and b) counties with the highest Medi-Cal and Healthy Families caseloads. Contra Costa County was among the top 20 counties that met their criteria. On October 10, 2006, the Family, Maternal and Child Health (FMCH) Programs submitted the OERU Plan requesting $968,098 for three years ($230,572 for fiscal year 2006-2007, and $368,763per year for fiscal years 2007-2008 and 2008-2009) to the Medi-Cal Eligibility Branch for review and approval. A response is expected by October 31, 2006. During this same time period, the FMCH Programs began the process of organizing an Access to Care Unit. The goal of this unit is to increase health coverage for children in Contra Costa by having a coordinated approach to outreach, enrollment, retention and utilization strategies that assist children and families seeking health coverage. An integral part of the work is development of an evaluation plan, which will allow us to measure the effectiveness of each of the components. Forming the Access to Care Unit will provide the infrastructure to implement the OERU Plan. The diagram below demonstrates how the components fit in together. Outreach Utilization Enrollment Systems Coordination Change Retention Evaluation Health Access Coalition This coordinated approach will require a shift in operational practices and staff roles. Currently, within Contra Costa Health Services there are different programs (e.g., CHDP, Financial Counseling, Contra Costa Health Plan) involved in the various access to care components, and each program has an established work plan, which may need to be adapted so that we can incorporate it into the framework of Access to Care. Ongoing discussions with program managers are helping us to identify areas for collaboration as well as areas of concern. This year, our focus will be to: ■ Build the capacity of our community partners through the Health Access Coalition by offering trainings and workshops on health coverage programs and application assistance. This will enable us to enhance and expand the network of individuals assisting families in need. ■ Prepare staff to navigate through the various health coverage programs so that they may better assist families in our communities. ■ Identify databases within our system that may be useful in data collection. ■ Evaluate all of the components to determine the level of impact on successfully increasing the number of the children with health coverage. ■ Honor our commitments with community partners. For example, the CHDP program, which has developed strong relationships with many school districts throughout Contra Costa, made a commitment to distribute 40,000 Request For Information (RFI) forms in the schools. Contra Costa Health Services—Family, Maternal and Child Health Programs 1 October 30,2006 I I i By the end of fiscal year 2006-07, the Access to Care Unit will be a program whose strategies and practices can be measured by the number of children enrolled in a health coverage programs. We will utilize the OERU funding to hire to two full-time Community Health Workers (CHWs) and a part- time Senior Health Education Specialist (SHES). The CHWs will primarily be responsible for outreach activities and assisting families with Medi-Cal and Healthy Families applications. We will expand our outreach and enrollment efforts to reach parents who have children on Head Start waiting lists, in soccer leagues, and who are living in family homeless shelters. Our plans include following up with women who have Medi-Cal and recently delivered at CCRMC so that their newborns can obtain full- scope Medi-Cal for a year. The SHES, along with other CHDP staff, will coordinate trainings for the faith community and community-based organizations. Two new areas will be the development of two promotional campaigns encouraging families to: 1) utilize their health care benefits, and 2) submit their renewal documentation on time for continued health coverage in Medi-Cal or Healthy Families. In addition, the Access to Care Unit will support the goals and activities of the new Contra Costa Health Initiative (CCHI). As CCHS begins to implement the CCHI, the Access to Care Unit staff will be able to promote and educate families about the availability of this new program. Educational materials and information about the CCHI will be shared with the Health Access Coalition and others so that they can share the information with their program staff and clients. By working closely with Financial Counselors, we will be able to link children identified as not eligible for Healthy Families or Medi-Cal with the CCHI. The work of the Access to Care Unit will be an essential component of the Contra Costa Health Initiative, Contra Costa Health Services—Family, Maternal and Child Health Programs 2 October 30,2006 1 it I