Colorado Coalition for the Homeless:
Outreach and Enrollment for Children and Youth

Donna Eurich with her two children at Denver Union Station.

Donna Eurich arrived at Denver Union Station with her husband and two children, both of whom needed to see a doctor.

"When we first got off the train, we had no place to go. We had a friend that was supposed to let us stay there and then it didn't work out, so we were out roaming the streets," she said. "We had no place to go and didn't even know where we were. To just go try to apply for Medicaid to get the help I needed for my children, there was just no way. I couldn't have done it without Amanda."

Amanda Wiatr is the Children's Service Coordinator with the Colorado Coalition for the Homeless. The nonprofit organization is one of the 19 community-based agencies that received multi-year grants from The Colorado Trust to help enroll traditionally hard-to-reach populations of eligible but uninsured children. She recounted that when she met the Eurichs, they were stranded in Denver. The children both urgently needed medical attention, but their birth certificates were needed to enroll them in Medicaid. Donna had official copies of them, but they were in her luggage, which was stuck at the train station. Donna had no way to pick up the luggage, and it was nearing the end of the 30 days that Union Station would hold the bags.

"Something that seems that small to someone who has a vehicle is really a huge obstacle for these families," Amanda said. "They had no idea how to overcome that situation. But it wasn't that difficult with the resources we have. We took our van and picked up [Donna], explained the situation to Union Station and they released the bags at no charge. With the birth certificates we got them enrolled in Medicaid."

These community-based organizations provide eligibility screening and application assistance and help their clients with reenrollment, as well as encouragement and help to parents in utilizing their insurance benefits for well-child visits and recommended health screenings. Between January 2009 and October 2010, approximately 26,000 individuals received outreach services, and more than 16,750 applied for Medicaid or CHP+ with the assistance of these grantees.

"For us, it's meant working within our organization and with other partners to be more intentional about identifying folks. We now have a process in place to ensure that each family who comes to us for services is asked if they have health insurance. When they don't have Medicaid, now everyone here knows to refer them to me," Amanda said.

Amanda said that many families struggle just to obtain copies of their children's birth certificates to apply for CHP+ and Medicaid. "A $20 charge to get an official copy can be an impossible barrier for them, but with this grant, we can help people order and expedite them so they get the help they need right away, and that's been huge," she said.

Through an additional grant provided by The Colorado Trust, the state's Department of Health Care Policy and Finance (HCPF) community outreach specialist provided training, certification and technical assistance to community-based enrollment assistance sites across the state. Amanda is now trained to determine a family's income and eligibility, and can contact HCPF should a situation arise where she doesn't quite know what to do. She also is certified to verify official documents like birth certificates so that families she works with don't have to go to county offices for verification.

Amanda said other common barriers she sees include people simply forgetting that they have to go through a regular renewal process, or they just moved and don't know where to go, or they have a lack of proper documentation. "So it's helping remove barriers and direct them. It's educating clients about how to use those benefits, how to get a primary care physician and choose a plan so they can use the benefits and then also how to keep their benefits. With redeterminations every year, it's easy to fall off the rolls, especially in populations who may move every year.

"Several of our families are going from shelter to shelter and have no actual address to put on an application," Amanda said. "So I can use our address and then let them know when we get mail for them."

By removing these barriers and providing assistance, the Colorado Coalition for the Homeless and other community-based organizations are helping to enroll children like the Eurichs in publicly-funded health insurance and increase access to care.

"Despite us going from one place another, [Amanda] just had everything sent to her so that we were able to get Medicaid," Donna said. "I was so happy to be able to take my kids to the doctor, I just can't tell you what a relief that was. ...it made all the difference in the world to my family."