Child health insurance outreach through the emergency department: a pilot study.
In 1997 the U.S. government funded the Children's Health Insurance Program (CHIP), but the 48 billion dollars initiative has had limited success in finding and enrolling uninsured children. While such children are more likely to receive care in emergency departments (EDs), no national initiative has targeted EDs for child health insurance outreach.


OBJECTIVE
As a pilot study for a national multicenter study, this study evaluated the effectiveness of child health insurance outreach in an ED setting.


METHODS
This was a prospective observational study of the outreach efforts of a single case manager from August 1998 to July 1999, performed at Foote Hospital ED in Jackson, Michigan (45,000 visits/year). All patients <or=18 years old presenting during the duty-hours of the intervention worker were eligible. The case manager approached the parent of all uninsured children and provided information and an application for government-sponsored health insurance. She followed up with a brief phone interview of each parent to determine whether the targeted child had received the insurance, and whether the new coverage was due to the ED referral. Missing information was confirmed from state insurance records. Data were analyzed with frequency tabulations and 95% confidence intervals.


RESULTS
Seventy-eight children participated (median age 7 years; 55% male; 87% white). Forty-four percent (95% CI = 32% to 55%) of families referred for government-sponsored child health insurance successfully obtained it; 31% (95% CI = 21% to 42%) could be traced directly to intervention efforts by interview (n = 17) or by state records (n = 7). Nineteen percent (95% CI = 11% to 30%) got other private insurance. Of those who got government-sponsored insurance due to the intervention, all but one were covered by Medicaid.


CONCLUSIONS
The ED may be an important outreach site for child health insurance programs. National efforts to address the lack of insurance among children should include partnerships with the ED.
Gordon
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JA
Department of Emergency Medicine, Massachusetts General Hospital, Institute for Health Policy, Partners HealthCare System, Division of Emergency Medicine, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02114-2696, USA. jgordon3@partners.org
Dupuie
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D000293:Adolescent; D002648:Child; D002662:Child Health Services; D002675:Child, Preschool; D004636:Emergency Service, Hospital / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D006801:Humans; D007348:Insurance, Health / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D007407:Interviews as Topic; D008297:Male; D008484:Medicaid / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D008824:Michigan; D019370:Observation; D010865:Pilot Projects; D011446:Prospective Studies; D013222:State Medicine / Q000706:statistics & numerical data