CHIPRA Outreach Workgroups
The Oklahoma Health Care Authority has established a workgroup to reinstitute and develop new outreach approaches for SoonerCare and Insure Oklahoma. The Outreach Workgroup seeks the answers to three basic questions:
- Who are the uninsured, and why?
- How do we best advertise and promote SoonerCare and Insure Oklahoma?
- What are the best methods to enroll the uninsured?
Vision: Every Oklahoman who is eligible for SoonerCare or Insure Oklahoma is insured and effectively uses health care benefits
Mission: OHCA through collaboration with state and community-based organizations and resources will develop, implement, and evaluate outreach strategies to successfully enroll Oklahoma's uninsured that are qualified for SoonerCare or Insure Oklahoma and ensure effective use of SoonerCare or Insure Oklahoma benefits.
Six targeted workgroups have been formed and operate under the oversight of the primary Outreach Workgroup. Each of the targeted workgroups has its own role, and functions with the assistance of the other targeted workgroups as necessary.
- Data Workgroup
To accurately target the uninsured it is important to know who they are and where they can be found. This is the role of the data workgroup. The data workgroup will use available databases to look at churn rates, who has dropped off the SoonerCare roles, and look into infants less than a year old have dropped off of SoonerCare. These are some of the information that the data workgroup is looking into.
- Grants Workgroup
The grants workgroup identifies grants that are available for outreach or to further outreach efforts. One of these grants is the CHIPRA outreach grants. This group will identify potential partners and resources for grant efforts. The grant workgroup will also coordinate grants and similar grant efforts between the OHCA and our community partners.
- Community Partners Workgroup
The Oklahoma Health Care Authority is not alone in working to improve the quality of health of Oklahomans. There are many agencies and organizations within Oklahoma that have their own outreach and enrollment methods and areas within the state. They each have their own niche to fulfill the needs of a specific population whether it is a geographic area, racial or minority groups, families in financial difficulties, or any other role in the communities. These other agencies and organizations in Oklahoma all work toward the same goal of helping Oklahoman’s have a healthier life. However these organizations do not work towards a single comprehensive goal and often do not know that other agencies and organizations exist and work in the same communities. The community partners workgroup identifies partner agencies and determines what projects they are working on to target their populations. This gives the opportunity to have open dialogue with the OHCA and to coordinate any outreach activities with ourselves and other community partners.
- Community Knowledge Workgroup
Part of the function of the Outreach workgroup is to discover why people are uninsured, what barriers are there for enrollment, and how the administrative side could be streamlined. The community knowledge group is responsible to find the answers to these questions by having focus groups, surveys, and other means to find why eligible Oklahoman’s are uninsured. Not only can these questions be aimed at the citizens of Oklahoma, but the same questions can be asked of the community partners to gain a better understanding of the barriers they face when working with the local communities.
- Media Outreach Workgroup
The media outreach workgroup is responsible for outreach to the general public. This group is important because potential members don’t always have ready access to the community programs and services that serve as major points of entry into the SoonerCare (Oklahoma Medicaid) system for children. Since this unreached population watches television and listens to the radio as well as receives media in other methods, we could contract with a communications company and reach them with our message. Using broadcast media is a cost-effective means of communication: Television and radio reach 95 percent of all Oklahoma households. When combined with other media sources there is great potential to reach everyone in Oklahoma and provide information about SoonerCare or other program through the OHCA
- Native American Outreach Workgroup
Native American tribes have a large role in Oklahoma’s health outcomes, it is important to have their ideas and input for outreach into their communities. The role of the Native American outreach workgroup is to coordinate with tribes for targeted outreach. Have discussions with the various tribal entities to determine specific tribal needs for outreach. This group is to assist the Native American tribes creating ‘shovel ready’ projects aimed at Native American children to be submitted as grants.