Healthy Kids Press Contact,
Ashley Carr, Chief Marketing Officer,
(850) 701-6160, [email protected].
October 14, 2004
Volunteers to go door-to-door in communities across the state to keep all eligible families enrolled
Tallahassee - Florida Healthy Kids is expanding its successful Project Pathfinder re-enrollment campaign to make sure eligible children continue their KidCare health benefits. Beginning today, Healthy Kids volunteers will canvass targeted neighborhoods across Florida to make face-to-face contact with the parents of participating children who have not yet re-enrolled in the program. The details of the campaign were announced today in Tallahassee.
"Thousands of eligible children all over the state have already completed the new enrollment process, however, a few have not," said Rose Naff, executive director of Healthy Kids. "With a generous donation from Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Florida, it made sense to use these new resources to expand 'Project Pathfinder' and go to the homes of the families who have not responded to our numerous letters and phone calls."
Project Pathfinder is an aggressive statewide communications campaign to re-enroll eligible children receiving health benefits through KidCare. Since June, Florida Healthy Kids has sent 382,183 letters and made 182,632 phone calls to re-enroll participating families under the new guidelines. "Now we're focused on reaching out to parents who have not had the chance to re-enroll," explained Florida's Chief Financial Officer Tom Gallagher. "Ensuring Florida's children have access to health insurance is one of the best investments we can make."
Volunteers will visit the homes of these parents to deliver specially made door hangers that include a form, instructions and a message about the importance of re-enrollment.
The information is also available in Spanish and bilingual volunteers will be canvassing some neighborhoods. A portion of the donation from Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Florida will cover the cost of the door hangers.
"As a health insurance provider for some of the families enrolled in the Healthy Kids program, we wanted to help make sure these kids continue their health coverage," said Randy Kammer, vice president of regulatory affairs and public policy, Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Florida. "We completely support this expansion and our work with Healthy Kids demonstrates our commitment to the community and Florida's working families."
Agency for Health Care Administration Secretary Alan Levine explained how the recent hurricanes have affected some families, prompting the state to take additional measures to simplify the program and reduce delays in restoring coverage.
"We've relaxed the rules and reduced the penalties for families who can't pay the premiums because they're recovering from the storms," Secretary Levine said. "These modifications by Governor Jeb Bush ensures that kids remain covered during this critical time in our state." He also added that it is up to parents who were affected by the storm to respond once they get their lives back in order and return their paperwork to re-enroll their eligible children.
Families wanting more information about the KidCare re-enrollment period can call 1-888-540-KIDS (5437) or download an application at www.healthykids.org.
Healthy Kids Press Contact,
Ashley Carr, Chief Marketing Officer,
(850) 701-6160, [email protected].
