Summary

More than 5,700 children in King County are now receiving publicly-funded health coverage, with most already having seen a doctor and dentist, thanks to the three year old King County Child Health Initiative (CHI) effort. The successes are part of numerous highlights outlined in the 2009 King County Children’s Health Initiative (CHI) Annual Measurement and Evaluation Report that King County Executive Kurt Triplett transmitted to the Metropolitan King County Council today.

Story

More than 5,700 children in King County are now receiving publicly-funded health coverage, with most already having seen a doctor and dentist, thanks to the three year old King County Child Health Initiative (CHI) effort. The successes are part of numerous highlights outlined in the 2009 King County Children’s Health Initiative (CHI) Annual Measurement and Evaluation Report that King County Executive Kurt Triplett transmitted to the Metropolitan King County Council today.

Adopted in 2007 as a local, public-private partnership aimed at improving the health of low-income children, the initiative benefited from the financial support and leadership of the former King County Executive Ron Sims, the King County Council, Group Health Cooperative, Washington Dental Service and more than 15 other organizations that matched the cornerstone funding from King County—a $1 million per year outreach funding commitment for 2007, 2008, and 2009 – for a total of over $6 million.

“Thanks to Ron Sims’ vision and leadership, the Children’s Health Initiative shows what effective collaboration between government, private companies and non-profit organizations can create,” said Executive Triplett. “By working together, we’ve piloted what could be a national model for helping families struggling with significant language, cultural, racial, and socioeconomic barriers access critical healthcare services – an effort that ultimately improves lives and makes more efficient use of resources for everyone in the community.”

Funds were used to advocate for insurance coverage for children, provide outreach to children and families, and create health innovation pilot projects.

As shown in the report transmitted today, the initiative has met or exceeded all of its target goals for the three-year pilot period and continues to be a robust partnership using best practices in outreach to link children and families to services that improve the health of children across King County.

Highlights from the three year run of the program include:

• Identifying and enrolling more than 5,700 children in the publicly-funded health coverage for which they were eligible.
• Connecting more than 4,500 children with medical providers and more than 3,000 children with dental providers.
• Providing funding and partnering with WithinReach to implement an online screening project that enabled 7,266 low-income individuals to learn that they were eligible for public health insurance.
• Contracting with partners at community health centers to screen 2,823 pregnant women and mothers for depression and mood disorders.
• Coordinating with the Washington Dental Service to expand access to oral healthcare by enrolling 808 King County children from low-income households in a dental benefits program.

The program’s goal was to ensure that all children in King County received needed preventive health care services by providing support to families in obtaining health care coverage and providing coordination in finding the right health care service or program to match each family’s eligibility and needs.

The report transmittal completes the submissions on the Child Health Initiative as requested in Council Motion 12507 which called for the King County Executive to develop semiannual and annual measurement and evaluation reports outlining progress in meeting the CHI vision, mission, and goals.

The report is posted online at https://www.kingcounty.gov/healthservices/health/partnerships/kchap/chi.aspx.