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Website credited for jump in low-cost insurance enrollment
NEWS IN BRIEF — Posted March 19, 2012
The creation of a publicly available website has been identified as the reason for a 14% increase in applications to California's Healthy Families, a low-cost insurance program for children in low-income families.
California launched an English version of the Health-e-App website on Dec. 20, 2010, and a Spanish language version on Jan. 31, 2011. On the sites, families can apply for the Healthy Families insurance program. The system automatically checks for errors, omissions and the relevance of each question to each applicant. They receive a preliminary eligibility determination instantly.
A research brief published in March by Mathematica Policy Research found that 4,347 families submitted self-service applications in the first full month the online service was made available. Online applications represented about 42% of the 223,700 applications submitted in 2011. The research was conducted with support from the California Healthcare Foundation, which helped fund the development of the Health-e-App, and the David and Lucile Packard Foundation.
Note: This item originally appeared at http://www.ama-assn.org/amednews/2012/03/19/bibf0319.htm.
