As part of our recently adopted Community Benefit Plan, Little Company of Mary has expanded outreach services within our service area to achieve our goal of developing a collaborative network of care for vulnerable populations, including children, seniors and the uninsured. Through a grant from the State of California Office of Medi-Cal Procurement, we expect to increase access to health insurance for children by enrolling them in Medi-Cal and the Healthy Families Program. To accomplish this goal, Little Company of Mary will utilize a successful existing program, Partners for Healthy Kids, and the services of a proven-successful marketing firm to enroll at-risk children and their families.

Partners for Healthy Kids is a school-linked mobile medical clinic that travels to five school sites each week, providing medical care services free-of-charge to children and families who might not otherwise have access to such care. The staff of Partners for Healthy Kids conducts outreach and facilitates the application process at school sites in four communities - Wilmington, Gardena, San Pedro and Lawndale. In addition, the part-time staff participates in parent events at "feeder" school sites to spread the word about the availability of subsidized health care for working families.

In addition, marketing representatives for Little Company of Mary will perform door-to-door outreach based on zip code data that documents high Latino population or significant numbers of children who qualify by family income level for Medi-Cal or Healthy Families.

The primary goal of Little Company of Mary's outreach project is 2100 new enrollments in Medi-Cal or Healthy Families within the Little Company of Mary service area. The emphasis of the program involves training community residents regarding the application process, scope of coverage available for children, issues which create barriers to enrollment and accessing heath coverage that meets the families’ needs. The fully-bilingual staff receives on-going training on these issues, as well as on effective problem-solving and marketing skills.

Quite simply, the communities currently served by Little Company of Mary's existing programs have a substantial number of children eligible, but not enrolled, in Healthy Families or Medi-Cal. In addition, our current efforts focus on episodic care for uninsured children. While there is a tremendous need for these services, our programs also seek to link children with chronic medical needs to a local provider to the extent that a willing provider can be found to provide care. Yet, the reality is that many of the communities in which we provide no-cost care do not have a sufficient number of providers within the community to meet demand. The outreach efforts of this project will help Little Company of Mary document the demand for services in poor communities. As the number of insured children grows within these communities, providers can clearly see the economic viability of locating in these areas - helping us fulfill the goals of our own Community Benefit Plan.