Congresswoman Matsui Announces $1 Million for California Children's Health Insurance Enrollment Efforts

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Monday, August 22, 2011

CONTACT: MARA LEE
(202) 225-7163

Congresswoman Matsui Announces $1 Million for California Children's Health Insurance Enrollment Efforts
Federal Grant Will Enroll Over 1,000 Sacramento Children

CA Today, Congresswoman Doris O. Matsui (D-Sacramento) announced that the California Primary Care Association (CPCA) has been awarded $1,000,000 in federal grants. This grant will further their efforts to identify and enroll children into available health insurance programs, by providing them much-needed coverage and financial. CPCA will share the funding with 10 clinics across the state, including Sacramento's community clinic consortium, the Capitol Community Health Network (CCHN). CCHN will receive $30,000 to help local clinics enroll eligible children in the Medicaid and the Children's Health Insurance Program (CHIP). These efforts are expected to enroll an additional 1,000 kids in Sacramento.

The federal funding will strengthen the California Primary Care Association's ability to do both outreach and enrollment in community clinics and health centers across the state, including over 1,000 children in Sacramento alone, said Congresswoman Matsui. This funding comes at an important time for California children, whose enrollment in Medi-Cal and Healthy Families will help ensure that their care will be covered when they need it. I applaud CPCA's and CCHN's continued dedication to enrolling more children into these critical programs, and to providing increased access to care in traditionally underserved communities.

We are very appreciative of the leadership of Congresswoman Matsui to secure funds to support the health of Sacramento's children. The Children's Health Insurance Program Reauthorization Act (CHIPRA) grant will fund enrollment of thousands of eligible children not yet enrolled in both Medi-Cal and Healthy Families. This effort will include the enrollment of nearly 1,000 Sacramento children who will now be served by our community clinics and health centers. The funds provided through CHIPRA will provide a lifeline for our children to the health care access they need and deserve, said Carmela Castellano-Garcia, President and CEO of the California Primary Care Association.

The grants will support proven outreach strategies and focus on several areas, such as using technology to facilitate enrollment and renewal, enlisting schools in outreach and enrollment activities, ensuring eligible teens are able to enroll and remain covered and reaching out to children most likely to experience gaps in coverage. CPCA is focused on increasing the capacity of outreach staff to enroll hard-to-reach uninsured populations through training sessions that will feature a combination of experts in field of outreach and enrollment, peer learning and best practice sharing, as well as regular policy updates about changes in state enrollment processes and eligibility. Efforts will be particularly focused on South Asian and Latino children in the Sacramento area.

CPCA is also using this grant to help position themselves to dramatically ramp up efforts to enroll uninsured patient populations that will become eligible for coverage through the Patient Navigator provision in the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, the new health care law signed into law by President Obama.

The federal grant is administered by the Department of Health andamp; Human Services (HHS), and is part of a national round of grant awards to aid efforts to identify and enroll eligible children in Medicaid and the Children's Health Insurance Program (CHIP). The federal funding was authorized under the Children's Health Insurance Program Reauthorization Act of 2009 (CHIPRA). The two-year grants were awarded to a total of 39 State agencies, community health centers, school based organizations and non-profit groups across 23 states.

For more information about Congresswoman Matsui's work to provide high-quality, affordable health care for Sacramento families, please visit www.matsui.house.gov/healthcare.

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