Advocacy
Advocacy Action Alerts:
Advocacy Sheet
Background
AHA Campaign for Coverage was initiated in 1997 to decrease the number of uninsured individuals and children. The Board of Directors of SSWLHC voted February 8, 1998 to further this goal with energy and leadership of social workers in health care.
What can we do in our Health Care Setting?
- Work with our Admitting and Billing Staff to provide information to patients who are uninsured. Create handouts, audio messages, video explanations, posters, staff table in waiting rooms with trained volunteers to provide information on insurance programs.
- Develop written materials to be used in public areas to give information on insurance coverage. Mass distribution in utility billing notices, provider bills.
- Provide leadership in the Community of State on the State Children's Health Insurance Program Initiative. Convey the message that children without health insurance may be eligible for their state program through Medicaid or the new program.
- Use organizational newsletters, newspapers, and mailings to educate readers about insurance resources for patients, families, or friends who may be eligible.
- Work with your state hospital association and shape a shared approach to increasing the number of insured.
What can we do in our Social Work Department or practice area?
- Orient staff regarding expanded coverage possibilities through State Children's Health Insurance Program, Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996, and COBRA.
- Meet with your Admitting or Registration Staff and develop methods to simplify the enrollment process for patients (specifically children) who are without health insurance coverage.
- Encourage staff members to volunteer to staff community outreach efforts to enroll people (especially children) to state and local programs to which they are eligible.
- Initiate a hospital wide multidisciplinary Continuous Quality Improvement team to identify opportunities to educate and enroll individuals/children to programs or provide them with the necessary information to begin process.
What can we do in our community/country/state?
- Contact major department stores to have trained greeters at the entrance areas to provide information on insurance coverage issues.
- Volunteer to serve on a state or local Task Force to develop or help implement the State Children's Health Insurance Program.
- Develop outreach sites at day care centers, county and state office buildings, shopping malls, and grocery stores.
- Train messengers to communicate the message and give them a FACT SHEET to hand out at grocery stores, discount stores, laundromats, and drug stores.
What can we do in our church or synagogue?
- Sponsor a booth, speaker, or preacher at a workshop service to inform the congregation about the Campaign for Coverage. Provide handouts that answer basic questions and direct readers to the locations they can enroll or secure the application.
- Sponsor outreach or enrollment day at the workshop sites. Advertise in advance and put information in bulletins, newsletter, etc.
- Train individuals in the congregation to be messengers with information on insurance coverage and go door to door to find individuals/children with no insurance and who are eligible.
Questions/Suggestions:
Dawn Simpson 207-973-7841
Alice Kitchen 816-234-3719
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