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

Effective Date:

Approval Date: 11 Children's Special Health Services, Smart Start and Head Start. NCDHHS also engages the participation of the private sector in providing no-cost or low-cost avenues for publicizing the Title XXI program in local communities statewide. These have included working with providers across the state to outreach to their patients who need the program and to solicit their input on the effective operation of the program.

The Robert Wood Johnson “Covering Kids and Families” funds, managed under the auspices of the NC Pediatric Society Foundation, is stressing reenrollment efforts, preventive health efforts and innovative uses of technology to prevent the inadvertent loss of home/mailing addresses of member children.

The Provider Task Force of NC Health Choice continually assesses both how the provider community (defined as primary care practitioners as well as representatives of vision, dental, hearing and mental health specialties) can assist in assuring both enrollment and reenrollment by families, and how to entice more providers into providing care to NC Health Choice patients. These efforts have included, but are not limited to: peer-to-peer visits among Health Choice and non Health Choice dentists, conversations among providers at specialty meetings, etc. Meetings with the office managers association have successfully ensured that “We take NC Health Choice” signs are posted in the doctor’s office, and that office workers check enrollment dates on cards so that families can be reminded to reenroll. The Provider Task Force has also been successful in addressing certain gaps in service. One notable effort included the addition of dental sealants; fluoride varnish for children and pulpotomies and steel crowns as covered services.

The Governor’s Commission on Children with Special Health Care Needs is charged with assessing and recommending improvements in the special needs services to all children in the state, with a particular attention being paid to NC Health Choice. The commission has examined the relationships between schools and health providers in the area of children with behavioral health care needs. They were responsible for recommending changes in residential care criteria and for assuring that special needs children were exempted from an existing period of uninsurance. The success of this amendment led to the removal of a period of uninsurance as an eligibility requirement for all NCHC children.

Other cooperative efforts have included the inclusion of NC Health Choice advertisements on the inside cover of WIC folders, and NC Health