Caring for All
Top: Legal Aid Society attorney Trey Daly
Below: Dee Ellingwood, senior vice president of Planning and Business Development at Cincinnati Children's
Cincinnati Children’s and Cover the Uninsured connect uninsured people with resources that help.
For families without health insurance, even the most basic health care seems out of reach. Scheduling appointments, taking time off work, arranging transportation - all of it can be too much for families already stretched to the limit. The results - children who don’t get immunized, parents who don’t get needed medications - can be long-term and devastating.
“Connecting uninsured families with health care resources has long been a goal of Cincinnati Children’s,” says Dee Ellingwood, senior vice president of Planning and Business Development. So six years ago, when the idea of holding a yearly event to accomplish this was initially floated, the hospital was one of the first to get on board.
Our Role in Covering the Uninsured
That event, Cover the Uninsured Week, was conceived by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF) as part of a national effort to draw attention to the millions of Americans who live without health insurance. Cincinnati got the attention of the RWJF because of efforts already underway in our community.
One activity that interested the Foundation was the Greater Cincinnati Healthcare Access Project (GCHAP), a group formed some 10 years ago to look at hospitals’ responsibility to the community. Cincinnati Children’s was active in GCHAP, which scrutinized hospitals’ practices in caring for the uninsured. The coalition ensured that hospitals had written policies about charity care, and that people on the front lines of the hospital practiced the policies.
Expanding Our Supprort
The Legal Aid Society of Cincinnati, under the direction of attorney Trey Daly, began coordinating Cover the Uninsured Week locally. Cincinnati Children’s was one of the first and most enthusiastic supporters of the endeavor, making a long-term commitment to supporting the event with dollars and people.
This year, the hospital further expanded its involvement, sponsoring a legislative forum about initiatives targeted to helping the medically underserved.
From Awareness to Action
The hospital also supported the event’s evolution from simple awareness-raising to actively enrolling qualified individuals in Medicaid and other programs.
“With community awareness, it was hard to measure whether we were having an impact,” says Ellingwood. “So we changed the event’s focus to actively connecting the uninsured with services.”
A Standout Response by Staff
Every year, for two weekends, Cincinnati Children’s staff join with other health care organizations, volunteering at two Cover the Uninsured weekend enrollment “blitzes” at area Kroger stores, explains Terresa Adams, community benefit officer in the Office of Community Relations at Cincinnati Children’s. Adams enlists staff to help as volunteers for Cover the Uninsured Week activities. She says they go above and beyond.
“We are always gratified by the generosity of our staff in volunteering their time to help families sign up for services,” Adams says. Not only do hospital volunteers help families complete the application forms, but they also submit the forms to the Department of Job and Family Services on the families’ behalf.
Cincinnati Children’s staff also work the phones during a Cover the Uninsured Week phonea-thon, which encourages people to call and ask if they qualify for insurance help. The willingness of staff to donate their time helping families get access to care is part of what makes Cincinnati Children’s such an exceptional place, says Ellingwood.
“Every day we see how important it is for families—and children in particular—to have access to good medical care,” he says. “Many people aren’t aware of the resources available to them. We’re committed to ensuring that we connect people with the right resources for health insurance and health care.”
