2001 ANNUAL REPORT - Florida Healthy Kids

[Pages:36]2001 ANNUAL REPORT

Table of Contents

4 Board of Directors 5 Letter from the Executive Director 7 Coming of Age 9 Timeline 10 KidCare: Partnership for Excellence 12 Outreach: Through the Schools 14 Health Services: Broadening, Strengthening 18 Eligibility: Faster and Easier 20 Enrollment Trends 22 Financing 24 Local Match Revisited 26 Delivery System 30 Standards and Quality: Rising to the Top 32 National Program Office 34 Other Readings

Florida Healthy Kids Corporation--2000/2001

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BOARD OF DIRECTORS

Kenney Shipley, Chair

DIRECTORS B. Lester Abberger, III John Agwunobi, M.D., M.B.A. Robert G. Brooks, M.D. Judie S. Budnick Steve A. Freedman, Ph.D., F.A.A.P. Mike Hightower Ruben King-Shaw, Jr. Charles G. Long, M.D., F.A.A.P. Jeffrey Miller Pete Mitchell Cyneetha A. Strong-Smith, M.D.

AD HOC MEMBERS Sandy J. Berger Bruce Culpepper, Esquire Philip D. Levin, M.D. Michelle L. Newell, FMLI, AIE, ACS Louis B. St. Petery, Jr., M.D. Bob Sharpe Phyllis J. Sloyer, M.P.A. Mary Gay Templeton Don Winstead

Rose M. Naff, Executive Director

Pictured at Left: Arriston N.P. Thomas, Brenna Naff, Margie Vizcarra, Will Grimsley, Khari Fischer, Chaney Naff, Michelle T. Ward

Letter From The Executive Director

Dear Friends,

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I am pleased to present the 2001 Florida Healthy Kids Corporation's annual report. This

report, entitled "Coming of Age," will track the accomplishments of the Healthy Kids

program. My own children inspired the title of this report. Having said that, I owe you an

explanation.

My daughter, Brenna, was just three years old when Healthy Kids was launched in

November 1990. Now, she is counting the months, weeks and days until she will be eligible

for her driver's license. Soon after, she will be old enough to vote ? I am certain someone will make a joke about voting and Florida here ?.

Rose M. Naff, Executive Director

Chaney, my son, was born when the Healthy Kids program was in its own developmental and implementation phase. At the

tender age of three months, Chaney was on hand in Daytona Beach to watch an interview of his mom for a segment on ABC's

World News Tonight as the very first Healthy Kids application was handed out to a third grade class in Volusia County. Now he is

nine, attending third grade himself, and mastering his multiplication tables.

As I watch my children quickly "coming of age," the question for me, as a parent, is whether I am adequately preparing them

for the future, their adulthood. Will they be prepared for all the challenges they will face? Will they possess the knowledge and

skills they need to achieve their goals and dreams? I certainly hope so.

I ask the same questions about Healthy Kids: Will the program mature in such a way that it is self?reliant and productive--

prepared for the future and whatever challenges and changes may be in store for it? Have the leaders of Healthy Kids, past and

present, sufficiently prepared the program to be successful in its own right? Again, I certainly hope so. If, like Chaney, Healthy

Kids is in the third grade, it still has a long way to go in preparing for its own adulthood.

At Healthy Kids, our emphasis is on children and "their doctor." The importance of a medical home is well documented. The

program must do its part to ensure that children continue to have access to the quality health care they need so they can be ready

to meet new challenges as they, themselves, come of age.

Sincerely,

Rose M. Naff, Executive Director Florida Healthy Kids Corporation

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Coming of Age ComingofAge

which encouraged using school districts as "insurance risk

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pools" for covering children, would serve as the foundation for

the establishment of the Florida Healthy Kids Corporation, a

non-profit organization devoted to providing health insurance

to uninsured school age children.

In 1990, Florida leaders launched an ambitious experiment

when then-Governor Bob Martinez bound his signature to

"The Florida Healthy Kids Corporation Act."

It was a simple notion. School systems would be used as the

mechanism for creating large risk pools to cover participants the

way businesses did. Coverage would be offered to families with

Families have traditionally acquired health care coverage for children enrolled in school, and benefits would be designed

their children in one of three ways. A small number of families specifically for kids. This idea was identical to what employment-

pay directly for their plans on an individual basis. Others find based insurance had been doing for decades. The only

insurance through public assistance programs like Medicaid. difference was that school children would be the "employees" of

And then there are those who make up the largest group, a system, thus qualifying themselves for coverage.

families who receive coverage under group insurance programs

Due to its success in establishing the program, the Robert

provided through the employer of the working parent. The Wood Johnson Foundation selected Healthy Kids in 1996 as the

reason: insurance programs for members of large employer National Program Office for the Foundation's Healthy Kids

groups traditionally have had the lowest prices.

initiative. Healthy Kids would serve as a model for a number of

Florida was one of the first states to design and deliver a other states as they sought to replicate this successful program.

successful solution to the challenge of providing health care to

Healthy Kids was also named the winner of the 1996

its youngest citizens.

Innovations in American Government award by the Ford

On March 31, 1988, the New England Journal of Medicine Foundation and the Kennedy School of Government at

published an article written by Dr. Steve A. Freedman entitled Harvard University. The Innovations Award recognizes

"Coverage of the Uninsured and Underinsured: A Proposal for governmental initiatives that provide creative solutions to

School Enrollment-Based Family Health Insurance." This essay, pressing social and economic problems.

Coming of Age ComingofAge (continued)

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The corporation has evolved as the political and social environment surrounding it has continued to develop. In 1997, then-President Clinton proposed the creation of the State Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP), the largest expansion of health care since the Medicaid program was implemented in 1970. The purpose: to identify children who were uninsured and get them enrolled in a program that would meet their health care needs. SCHIP unloaded billions of dollars into a pool for states to use to provide health services to uninsured children.

For Florida, SCHIP allowed for a significant expansion of Healthy Kids. The program's benefit package was grandfathered into federal law and deemed in the federal statute to be compliant with federal guidelines. At that point, the original theory of school-based enrollment was abandoned and the Florida KidCare program was created soon thereafter.

Healthy Kids was able to act as a foundation from which the Florida KidCare program could develop.

Today, Florida Healthy Kids serves more than 180,000 children in all of Florida's sixty-seven counties. Also, the program holds contracts with thirteen health plans and three dental insurers to administer services to all of its participants.

Healthy Kids realizes its success is dependent on families' enrollment feedback. According to reports, families are happy with the benefits they are receiving. A recent Florida KidCare Evaluation Report noted that over 98% of Healthy Kids enrollees were satisfied with the benefits they receive through the program.

The Florida Healthy Kids Corporation realizes the need to continue its hard work. As we meet new challenges, demands and changes, the corporation must remain focused on the goal of ensuring that Florida's youngest citizens have access to affordable, quality health care.

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