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Search Terms: health AND uninsured

Document 488 of 1000.

January 14, 2000, Friday

SECTION: Editorial; Ed. Final; Pg. 52A

LENGTH: 586 words

HEADLINE: DENVER SOLVING PROBLEM OF STATE'S UNINSURED

BYLINE: By Patricia A. Gabow

BODY:
Despite a booming economy, the number of Americans without health insurance has increased at the rate of 1 million a year over the last decade. In Colorado there are 580,000 uninsured people. We, at Denver Health, take interest in this problem for two major reasons: first, because of the negative impact that the lack of insurance has on an individual's health and thus the health of the community, and second, because of the impact on the health of the Denver Health system. An uninsured child is 80 percent more likely never to get routine health care, and more than half of uninsured adults have no regular source of health care. Denver Health provides more than $150 million of care to uninsured people every year. This represents 41 percent of all our charges, 50 percent of all of the unsponsored care in the metropolitan area, and 31 percent of all the unsponsored care in the state. This presents both an enormous financial burden and an enormous opportunity to impact the health of Denver and Colorado.

As the single largest provider of health care to the uninsured in Colorado, Denver Health decided to take an aggressive role in addressing this problem. First, we were struck by the fact that virtually everyone who is eligible for Medicare enrolls as soon as they become eligible, but this is not the case for the two other major governmental health insurance programs. National data show that one-third or more of the people eligible for Medicaid never enroll and more than half of those eligible for the Children's Health Insurance Plan never enroll.

We reasoned that if we could enroll everyone who is eligible for Medicaid and CHIP, individuals and the community would be healthier and the new revenues would permit us to develop a better system of care for the uninsured.

Our effort gained support from the Community Voices Initiative, funded by the W.K. Kellogg Foundation and The Colorado Trust. Through this initiative, we conducted a formal survey in English and Spanish of 500 uninsured Denver Health users to find out why people didn't enroll. We found that despite the fact that Medicaid has been around for more than 30 years, about one-quarter of the uninsured did not know about the program and about 70 percent of those with children did not know about CHIP.

To address this lack of awareness, we hired six community outreach workers, linked with more than 200 community partners in the neighborhoods we serve and developed brochures on these health programs to get the word out. We also have developed a cadre of 31 people specifically trained in Medicaid and CHIP to help our uninsured patients enroll and have worked closely with the county Department of Human Services and the state Department of Health Care Policy and Financing in these efforts. In addition, we have developed a small business HMO product to help businesses insure their workers.

Our efforts are beginning to pay off. This year Denver Health submitted applications to enroll 52,000 previously uninsured patients in various health programs and enrolled 385 individuals in our small business product. We have set our goal to have everyone who is eligible for any health insurance enrolled by 2001 and have dubbed the effort ''Everyone by 2001.'' We believe that this kind of approach could be used by every health provider in Colorado.

Efforts like these can help Denver and Colorado address the issue of our uninsured and improve their health and the health of all our communities.

NOTES:
SPEAKOUT
Dr. Patricia A. Gabow is CEO and medical director of Denver Health.

LOAD-DATE: January 15, 2000

Document 488 of 1000.


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