Conducted in the summer of 2002, the goal of the Access to Health Care and Insurance Coverage study was to ensure that Livingston County residents are continuously covered by affordable health insurance and able to access appropriate, affordable health care services when they are needed.
The study’s objectives were to:
- identify populations that are at high risk of not having health insurance and the primary factors
contributing to not having health insurance.
- identify the populations that currently experience difficulty accessing affordable health care, and
- evaluate the effectiveness of the current facilitated enrollment efforts of the Department of Health and Department of Social Services and identify opportunities to enhance and expand the program.
- determine a demographic and geographic profile of the uninsured/self-pay patients and identify trends and challenges in providing care to the uninsured population.
Focus Groups
Eight, one-hour focus groups of three to nine people each were held with Livingston County residents. The focus groups were comprised of health professionals, uninsured adults, publicly insured adults, and commercially insured adults.
Key Findings
- There is an overall lack of community education about the public insurance program and other low or no cost public health care services currently offered.
- The complexity of the public insurance program application and utilization processes is also a barrier to insurance coverage.
- Overall, there are numerous barriers to access to health care and to utilization of health care for members of all groups.
- Extreme difficulty in obtaining specialty care and dental care was noted by the groups.
See the Related Documents below to read the complete study (PDF file)
and view a PowerPoint summarizing the study.
Recommendations
A list of recommendations has been developed to reduce barriers to health insurance and access to affordable health care. Some of the recommendations include:
- Widely market currently available low cost health insurance products.
- Work with county departments of social services to ensure that NYS residents eligible for public insurance are able to maintain coverage when they move within New York State.
- Provide information at enrollment about the scope of the benefits and provide members with a toll-free number to call when they are unable to obtain services to which they feel they are entitled.
- Ensure that all public places have brochures and application information about public insurance programs.
- Develop a quality improvement program to encourage applicants to consult a Facilitated Enroller for assistance in completing the public health insurance application accurately on the first submission.
- Work with Genesee Valley Health Partnership to expand after-hours care for a range of services, including dental care and mental health services.
Related Documents: |