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Model Application Template for the State Children‟s Health Insurance Program

Effective Date:

Approval Date: 31

Television commercials that had been produced for the national Insure Kids Now effort were used. Commercials were aired in both English and Spanish. Also a 60-second radio commercial in English and Spanish was produced. The commercials were aired for a seven-week period during March, April and May. There was an immediate response to the media campaign. During the six-month period prior to the campaign, the hawk-i customer service center received an average of 400 application requests per month. During the three months in which the commercials aired, application requests averaged 1,500 per month.

Other Media Ads have been placed in the Qwest Dex directory, in the yellow pages as well as the internet listing hawk-i 's toll free number. Ads have also occurred in various local and state newsletters, magazines, and other publications.

Partnering with Schools The Department of Human Services and the Department of Education collaborated to develop an interagency agreement that allowed schools and child care providers who participate in the Free and Reduced Meals Program to make referrals to the hawk-i Program for outreach purposes. Under this initiative, the names of applicants for the Free and Reduced Meals Program are referred to the hawk-i Program unless the family specifically asks not to be referred. Participating schools submitted a list of names to the hawk-i customer service center and then the customer service center mailed an application and information to the families. During the first year of this effort, applications were mailed to approximately 6,000 families. The Departments are working together to ensure this will be an ongoing effort.

Literacy Project Iowa was one of seven states selected to participate in a literacy project being conducted by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. The purpose of the project was to evaluate applications, brochures and other state- produced materials to assess how they could be modified to ensure comprehension by persons with very low literacy levels. Additionally, materials written in non-English languages were evaluated to see if they would meet the needs of the populations for which they were intended. These findings are being utilized in the study to redesign the hawk-i application and brochure in order to remove as many barriers to enrollment as possible.

Multi-Language Poster The Department of Human Services introduced a new multi-language hawk-i poster in October 2001 in order to ensure that the needs of persons with