全球智库信息集成服务系统

The Boston Public Health Commission Plays an Important Role

• The commission provided direct and indirect enrollment assistance, leveraged partnerships, used data to identify populations, and provided education.

Outreach and Enrollment Efforts Face Challenges

• A primary challenge was the unreliability of the MassHealth website, which was not functional during open enrollment. People who therefore enrolled using paper application forms during the 2013–2014 open enrollment will need to reenroll through the electronic portal in the 2014–2015 open-enrollment period.
• Small-business owners had many questions about the technical and financial implications of the coverage choices that went beyond the navigators' training. As a result, the commission scaled back direct outreach with small-business owners until it could train staff on how to answer these questions.

Some Factors Help the Local Health Department's Efforts

• The commission used census-level data to identify people and neighborhoods most likely to be eligible for insurance coverage and benefit from enrollment assistance.
• The availability of community health centers has been an especially important resource for health department staff as they connect newly insured people with primary health care.
• Because people are connected at the neighborhood level to the organizations and services that exist in their neighborhoods, these connections help to facilitate the word-of-mouth information sharing and trust needed for effective outreach and enrollment.