Children's Health Insurance Outreach to Displaced Employees Hawaii Covering Kids participated in presentations by the state's Rapid Response Team, conducted radio interviews, placed community newspaper advertisements, distributed a news release, and joined outreach events to inform recently laid off employees about health insurance for their children. Many of these families had never been connected to government services, therefore emphasis was enrolling kids in QUEST and Medicaid Fee-for-Service and explaining how the programs operate. Mahalo plenty to these radio stations for playing our thirty-second PSA during May 2008: Hawaii: Da Beat, ESPN Radio, KAPA, and KBIG Kauai: KONG, KUAI 720, Shaka Rocks, and Surf 95.9 Maui: Da Jam 98-3, ESPN Radio KMVI, KPOA, 99.9 KISS FM, X 92.5, and The Talk of Maui 900 KNUI Oahu: KSSK, Hot 93.9, 95.5 The Fish, KRTR 96.3, KHCM 97.5 Hawaii’s Country Music, Island Rhythm 98.5, 99.5 The Jewel, KCCN FM 100, Star 101.9, Power 104.3, Hawaiian 105 KINE, Oldies 107.9, AM 690 KHNR News Talk, AM 760 KGU Hawaii’s Christian Talk, News Radio 830 KHVH, and The Talk Station 990 KHBZ The project director participated in two radio interviews encouraging laid off workers to call 211 or visit coveringkids.com for information about QUEST health insurance for their children: 04/25/08 at 8:17 am on KRTR 96.3 FM and 04/29/08 at 8:10 am on KDNN 98.5 FM. The Hawaii State Department of Labor and Industrial Relations posted a download link, “QUEST Health Insurance Information for Children,” on its Information for Laid Off / Displaced Workers web page with a PDF copy of our flyer and children’s health insurance program information. Children's Health Insurance Eligibility Forum On April 16, Hawaii Covering Kids sponsored two national speakers, Edwin Park from the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities and Caroline Rivas from Community Health Councils, who presented information about recent federal policies and their implications for our children's health insurance programs. Topics included CHIP Reauthorization, CMS's August 17 Directive, and CMS's Payment Error Rate Measurement (PERM) program. There were also updates about the National Covering Kids & Families Network and Hawaii's progress towards covering all kids with health insurance. Click on this link for a PDF copy of the presentations: April 2008 Children's Health Insurance Policy Forum in Hawaii. Maui Children's Health Day We partnered with Community Clinic of Maui for this annual AlohaCare event on 21 March 2008. In addition to activities and giveaways, Hawaii Covering Kids placed advertisements in four newspapers--Haleakala Times, Lahaina Times, Maui News, and Maui Weekly--encouraging families to visit our booth. Immigrant Media Campaign: Phase 3 We completed the final phase of our media campaigns targeting parents and guardians with lawful permanent resident children. Phase 3 focused on Japanese, Latino, and Tongan families and details, along with a comprehensive report, are at Immigrant Media Campaigns. State Representatives Honor Hawaii Covering Kids A special presentation was held on 2 April 2007 in the House of Representatives chambers honoring and celebrating the accomplishments of our project's partners. Representative Green and Representative Mizuno introduced the project and other state representatives also expressed accolades for hard work and dedication to helping Hawaii's children and youths. The Hawaii Covering Kids project director, Barbara Luksch, and Hawaii Primary Care Assocation chief executive officer, Beth Giesting, were presented framed certificates and the House of Representatives passed a resolution "Commending HAWAII COVERING KIDS for its accomplishments in reducing the number of uninsured children and youth in Hawaii and expressing appreciation for its assistance in enrolling Hawaii's children and youth in QUEST and MEDICAID Fee-for-Service programs." You can view and download a PDF version of the resolution by clicking here: House Resolution 295. This tribute recognized the power of collaborative efforts dedicated to a goal focused on the health and well-being of our children. Hawaii Covering Kids partners were cited as "unsung heroes" working tirelessly throughout Hawaii's communities to improve children's lives through comprehensive outreach, planning, coordination, and health insurance application assistance. Finally, Speaker Say adjourned for a short recess so state representatives could meet Barbara and Beth and impart individual congratulations. Hawaii Covering Kids offered appreciation for their partnership because leadership from lawmakers has been a crucial part of our success. Insured v. Uninsured Newborns Research conducted by the Hawaii Health Information Corporation shows a decrease in the annual number of uninsured newborns from an average of 520 (1995-1999) to an average of 363 (2000-2005). Recently, there were 254 uninsured newborns in 2004 and 285 uninsured newborns in 2005 representing only 1.4% and 1.6% of newborns respectively. Data are available by island and geographic areas in PDF format: Uninsured Newborns 1995-1999 Uninsured Newborns 2000-2005 Hawaii Hospital Emergency Department Visits When our project began in June 1999, our Evaluation Task Force decided an important indicator to help measure our success is a decrease in emergency room visits by uninsured children and youth. A recent report from Hawaii Health Information Corporation shows very encouraging results! Overall decrease of emergency room visits by uninsured children and youth from 5.3% to 3.6%; County decreases in Hawaii from 4% to 2.98%, Honolulu from 5.53% to 3.23%, and Kauai from 3.66% to 2.46%; and Decrease for each age group with the most dramatic for 13-18 year olds from 7.68% to 4.74%. Click here for a copy in PDF format. Multilingual Flyers Our flyer is available in these languages: Cambodian, Chinese, Chuukese, English, Hawaiian, Ilocano, Japanese, Korean, Kosraean, Laotian, Marshallese, Pohnpeian, Samoan, Spanish, Tagalog, Thai, Tongan, Vietnamese, Visayan, and Yapese. Copies can be downloaded at Flyers and Media Outreach Campaigns. We will post more translated versions as they become available. Community Training Workshops We collaborate with Med-QUEST to conduct ninety-minute sessions called "Enrolling Children and Youth in QUEST and Medicaid" so community organizations can help families complete Med-QUEST's application and eliminate enrollment barriers. Since November 2003, we have sponsored 51 workshops for 589 participants from 90 organizations on 6 islands. If your organization is interested in this FREE opportunity, email Barbara at coverkids@aol.com or call 536-8442. An informational flyer can be downloaded in PDF format by clicking here: Community Training Workshops. Recent Media Coverage “Unemployed urged to get kids on QUEST” in The Honolulu Star-Bulletin, Honolulu, April 18, 2008. “Kids eligible for free insurance” in The Honolulu Star-Bulletin, Honolulu, September 12, 2007. "Med-QUEST health coverage expanded” in The Honolulu Advertiser, Honolulu, March 7, 2007. “Measures aim for health coverage for all isle kids” in The Honolulu Star-Bulletin, Honolulu, January 22, 2007. “Keiki insurance bill shouldn’t be delayed” in The Honolulu Star-Bulletin, Honolulu, January 22, 2007. “Agencies unite for the needy” in The Honolulu Star-Bulletin, Honolulu, July 9, 2006. “Officials Scramble to Help 200,000 with Medicaid” on KITV-4, Honolulu, June 29, 2006. "Child health effort hits BYUH campus" in The Honolulu Advertiser Windward People, October 12, 2005. “The QUEST for insurance” in The Honolulu Star-Bulletin, Honolulu, October 9, 2005. “State offers free vaccines to kids without health insurance” in West Hawaii Today, Kailua-Kona, August 1, 2005. “More kids qualify for free health insurance” in The Honolulu Star-Bulletin, Honolulu, March 8, 2005. "QUEST income limits raised" in Pacific Business News, Honolulu, March 7, 2005.