Teachers for Healthy Kids was developed jointly by the California Teachers Association and the California Association of Health Plans with original funding from The California Endowment. The project’s purpose is to include teachers as part of a comprehensive school outreach team that will make health insurance outreach part of the regular school and parent communications. The project’s health plan partners support outreach efforts through strategic planning, participation in school activities and follow-up with enrollment as needed. The project works with state agencies and local child and community advocacy groups, legislators, labor, state agencies and other educational organizations to simplify enrollment, and promote policy change to expand health coverage options for children. THK input has been instrumental in providing information that helped prevent a cap on Healthy Families enrollment and promoted the expansion of the Express Lane Enrollment sites. The project currently works with groups such as Communities for Healthy Kids, the League of California Cities and the local Children’s Health Initiatives to expand health coverage opportunities for children.

As the THK Health Outreach project was initially getting started, it worked with the Managed Risk Medical Insurance Board (MRMIB), the government body that oversees the Healthy Families program, to develop rules and guidelines that would protect children, families, and schools. As a result, MRMIB and THK developed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) that allows the health plan partners to participate in the school-based outreach projects. Additionally, the health plans have their own MOU with MRMIB that prohibits the health plans from steering families into their own or any particular health plan. While THK never has problems with or complaints about the health plan partners, these regulations ensure that should there ever be a problem, then the proper authorities would be notified.

A key phase of the project has involved the education of 340,000 California Teachers Association members and staff about child health insurance issues and program options. Initial outreach focused on the Express Lane Eligibility (ELE) pilot sites with project sponsorship of Back to School activities and the printing of over 70,000 letters to parents and teachers promoting ELE. Outreach activities also included efforts to reach school nurses and Healthy Start staff members.

The current project outreach focus is at the school site to facilitate the enrollment of students in health coverage programs. Classroom information resource kits with flyers for distribution to parents with local enrollment information have been distributed to approximately 40,000 teachers statewide. In-depth district outreach including surveys to determine health insurance status and follow-up enrollment efforts by health plans and community organizations are occurring in key school districts around the state. These efforts have served districts with about 70% of California’s school-age population and have been targeted at schools of greatest need. Other targets include counties with local Children’s Health Initiatives. The project has encouraged districts to coordinate efforts with Medicaid Administrative Activities (MAA) billing activities in an effort to assure sustainability of the program. The project’s funding from The California Endowment ended in early 2008. However, THK continues its work to embed the projects in targeted schools so that the relationship between teachers, health plans and school personnel will continue in areas where there are high numbers of uninsured children in the state. The current project is supported by the health plan partners and the California Association of Health Plans.

Learn more about THK in this PowerPoint Presentation: