Alameda County Social Services Agency To Receive Award for Health Coverage Enrollment Program
The National Association of Counties on Sunday will present a national achievement award to Alameda County's social services agency for its "No Wrong Door" health coverage enrollment program, the Contra Costa Times reports. The program, which was established in 2002, aims to increase low-income residents' access to health coverage by having trained assistants help them complete applications for health insurance programs (Ashley [1], Contra Costa Times, 7/15). County Supervisor Alice Lai-Bitker said the program steers uninsured residents through the "confusing and overwhelming" application process that frequently deters those eligible from applying for programs such as Medi-Cal and Healthy Families (Ashley [2], Contra Costa Times, 7/15). "No Wrong Door" began as a pilot project in Hayward, and the county last year obtained a three-year, $1.5 million grant to expand it throughout the county.
To date, the program has helped more than 16,000 county residents obtain health coverage, and more than 80% of the 20,000 people who have applied through the program have been approved for Medi-Cal or Healthy Families (Ashley [1], Contra Costa Times, 7/15). Since the program was implemented, the application approval rate in the county for the two programs has increased from 59% to 84%, and application processing time has decreased from 45 days to seven days (Ashley [2], Contra Costa Times, 7/15).
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