Center for Civic Partnerships

Western Coachella Valley Health Partnership

For more information on the Health Partnership's work contact:

Kelley Green, R.N., Ph.D., Project Director
1150 N. Indian Canyon Drive P.O. Box 2293
Palm Springs, CA 92262-2293
Tel: (760) 323-6868
Email: wcvhp@aol.com

Increasing the Numbers of Children with Health Insurance

Diversity in the Health Partnership (HP) was enhanced when Partners were added from community-based groups such as churches and small non-profit CBOs. These partners benefited from capacity-building programs presented by the HP: three-part, Support Services for Grassroots Groups, and five-part Information and Resource Referral Training Program. The Outreach Network evolved from these programs.

Outreach Network has grown to include 20 enthusiastic community-based organizations, including three school districts, that provide outreach and application assistance for the Healthy Families and Medi-Cal for Children Program. Representatives of our local and County Social Services offices attend the meeting. This provides valuable exchange of information from Social Services to local Certified Application Assistants (CAAs) and visa versa. The Outreach Network meeting is used to ascertain input for the Feedback Loop of the 100% Campaign.

Healthy Families and Medi-Cal for Children Program During the first two years much time was spent marketing the programs and les time assisting families with completing the applications. With much process improvement, and adopting a successful model from U.C.S.D., CAA positions were relocated to the school districts where CAAs can examine the “emergency cards” and directly access parents of uninsured children. The need to spend time marketing was eliminated and application assistance has increased. For the life of the HP, it is estimated approximately 5289 families and almost 9000 children will have been assisted with obtaining health insurance. (1998 – 121, 1999 - 1125, 2000 - 2533, first half of 2001 – 1510.)

CCP Health Partnership Newsbrief: February 2001

Pediatric Case Management Program Finds a New Home

Vantage Medical Group has adopted the pediatric case management program (multi-disciplinary case management services for children who have frequent preventable hospital visits). Vantage contracts with Inland Empire Health Plan (IEHP) and Molina – the two insurance companies that provide managed Medi-Cal in Riverside County. IEHP is also a provider for Healthy Families. Vantage is currently expanding the program to cover children in the eastern Coachella Valley. The Health Services Committee is extremely pleased that the pilot was not only implemented at scale, but has already been expanded to other communities.

Western Coachella Valley Health Partnership Take a Proactive Approach to Medi-Cal Policy Reform Efforts

The Medi-Cal mail-in application has a 35 percent denial rate in Riverside County. Staff continue to work with Managed Risk Medical Insurance Board (MRMIB), Department of Health Services (DHS), Riverside County Social Services and the 100% Campaign to address the problems in the processing system causing the high denial rate. Some ideas being discussed with Social Services are a toll-free information number and a “customer service” position at the local Social Service offices. In the past two years, the Health Partnership’s outreach workers have assisted almost 2300 families with completing applications to insure approximately 6000 children. On June 29, the HP a Public Charge Policy Seminar which was attended by 150 professionals from SB, Riverside, and Imperial Counties. The purpose of the seminar was to get the word out that Medical and Healthy Families does not count as a public charge and will not interfere with parent's attempts to adjust their immigration status.

CCP Health Partnerships Newsbrief: Summer 2000

Health Service Integration Implemented in Cathedral City

The Western Coachella Valley Health Partnership (WCVHP) makes comprehensive, accessible healthcare a reality for the families of Cathedral City. WCVHP continues to work with Desert Regional Medical Center, Riverside County Health Services Agency and a private practice clinic to establish a Family Health Center. WCVHP successfully negotiated and signed a lease for the Family Health Center, which is scheduled to open in April 2000.

CCP Health Partnership Newsbrief: Winter 2000

One-Stop Prevention for Cathedral City Residents

The Western Coachella Valley Health Partnership (WCVHP) continues its efforts to increase access to preventive health services in Cathedral City. This community has a high proportion of childbearing and child rearing families. Presently, many lower income residents do not have access to pediatricians or OB/GYN services. The WCVHP is working with Desert Regional Medical Center, Riverside County Health Services Agency and a private practice clinic to establish a one stop family health center in Cathedral City. Each partner in the effort will contribute services to the proposed family health center. The Family Medical Clinic plans to bring in a full-time pediatrician and OB-GYN. Desert Regional Medical Center will provide prenatal and infant care classes as well as asthma and diabetes education for children. The County of Riverside Health Service Agency will open a WIC (Women’s Infants and Children - Nutritional Supplement Program) and a car safety seat program. The WCVHP plans to pay three years of rent for WIC. As preventive health services are increasingly utilized, WIC will employ resource reallocation strategies to pay their own rent. The family health center is scheduled to open August 1, 1999.

CCP Health Partnership Newsbrief: Summer 99

Targeting Preventable Pediatric ER Visits

The Western Coachella Valley Health Partnership’s Health Services Committee selected preventable pediatric hospital visits as the indicator on which to focus their finance reform efforts. They are finalizing plans for a case management program for children from birth to seven years, who have frequent visits to the hospital. Desert Hot Springs was selected as a target area by virtue of its disproportionate share of such visits. The case manager will be assisted by two community aids and also by partners in the Health Partnership’s Outreach Network who operate in Desert Hot Springs. Implementation is tentatively set for mid 1999. Reinvestment strategies will be employed to secure sustainability of the program. This committee continues to enjoy strong commitment and enthusiasm from the stakeholders involved (Public Health, school district, hospital, Head Start).

CCP Health Partnership Newsbrief: Winter 99

Western Coachella Valley Health Partnership Hosts "Growing Up Well" Press Conference

The Western Coachella Valley Health Partnership recently hosted a press conference in Palm Springs to kick off the "Growing up Well" series on children’s health and prevention. The press conference included the release of statewide survey results regarding health care for children. The California Center for Health Improvement and The Field Institute surveyed 1,168 parents and found that one in every five of the state’s children is not covered by any kind of health insurance. In sharp contrast, a higher proportion of children in the Coachella Valley have problems accessing health care services; a 1995 study revealed the lack of necessary medical care for children was three times higher than that of children in the rest of the country.

Access to health services is a top priority for the Western Coachella Valley Health Partnership in its efforts to remove barriers to health care services. The Health Partnership is collaborating with many agencies including Riverside County Health and Social Services to make health care services more accessible and user-friendly for families by conducting door-to-door outreach to dispel fears and misconceptions about Medi-Cal. The Partnership and collaborators are also working to develop a low-cost primary and preventive health insurance package for qualified families.

CCP Health Partnership Newsbrief: Winter 98

Western Coachella Valley Health Partnership Develops Plan

The Western Coachella Valley Health Partnership has selected the strategies that they will propose in their Community Health Improvement Plan. In their community assessment, they discovered that 56 percent of 18-29 year olds are uninsured, as are 48 percent of households with a child under 13 years old. Thirty percent of women are not receiving early prenatal care and the pediatric hospital admission rate is three times the national average (five times the national average for ambulatory care sensitive conditions). They plan to develop a community preventive care plan for funding prenatal and pediatric care. They are proposing a demonstration project which will create a provider network that uses prevention-driven protocols for care, provides culturally competent care and is community-based.

They also plan to increase the capacity of the Health Partnership and other community organizations to improve population health. Community organizers from the target population will lead an effort to identify grassroots community organizations and help them increase their capacity for achieving their community improvement or health improvement goals. Potential areas of capacity building for the Partnership and other organizations include finance reform, cultural competency, policy innovations and benchmarks.

CCP Health Partnership Newsbrief: Winter 97