HHS Gives California Clinics $22M To Help Boost ACA Enrollment

On Wednesday, HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius announced that 125 federally qualified community health clinics in California will receive a total of $21.9 million to boost efforts to enroll individuals in health insurance coverage under the Affordable Care Act, KPCC's "KPCC News" reports.

The awards are part of a total $150 million that HHS is awarding to clinics nationwide to help improve enrollment efforts (O'Neill, "KPCC News," KPCC, 7/10).

Details of Calif. Grants

The grants to California clinics will be used to hire more than 400 additional workers who will seek to enroll an estimated 575,000 state residents in health coverage under the ACA (Rauber, "Bay Area BizTalk," San Francisco Business Times, 7/10).

The workers will aim to help consumers:

Understand their coverage options through Medi-Cal, Medicare, the Children's Health Insurance Program and Covered California;
Determine their eligibility for insurance and subsidies; and
Successfully enroll in health policies.

Medi-Cal is California's Medicaid program, and Covered California is the state's health insurance exchange (HHS release, 7/10).

Comments

Sebelius said, "This investment will give California neighborhoods and towns one more resource to help people understand their insurance options and enroll in affordable coverage" (Robertson, Sacramento Business Journal, 7/10).

This is part of the California Healthline Daily Edition, a summary of health policy coverage from major news organizations. Sign up for an email subscription.