Medicaid applications can be overwhelming and intimidating, but their difficulty doesn’t have to be a barrier to joining Texas Children’s Health Plan. Thanks to the health plan’s application assistance team incoming members can receive help with the process from start to finish.
The team of three works to help potential members fill out the forms and submit the necessary paperwork. “We work with both English and Spanish speaking families to ensure that they have support in navigating the process,” said Lupe Fraga, application assistance specialist. “The absolute best part of our jobs is educating families so that they know that they can get medical, dental, vision and access to other social services resources in the community. That’s our greatest joy — providing valuable information.”
Fraga’s teammate, Elizabeth Gallegos, added that families are amazed about how easy the process can be. “People truly are in disbelief that it is so simple. They feel a sense of relief that with our help they can receive so many benefits.”
But with any great reward, there also comes challenges and that is where a lack of trust comes in. Gallegos said that getting the community to trust the team is something they are constantly working on.
“In order to help, we have to be trusted,” Gallegos said. “They have to trust us to fill out the application and submit important paperwork.”
When trust does take place, negative consequences can be avoided. Elizabeth Tobar, the third member on the team says that because of the complexity of the application, families can be denied coverage because of errors. “Unfortunately this can be so discouraging that many go without coverage or needed care for long periods of time. Having the opportunity to help navigate them through the process and overcome those barriers is so rewarding, especially at a time like this.”
The team is currently averaging about 35 to 40 applications per week and with a steady increase in membership, they are slated to do much more in the weeks ahead.
The application assistance team was created in 2017 and is led by Claudia Garcia, marketing manager.
To learn more about Texas Children’s Health Plan visit TexasChildrensHealthPlan.org. To read about the health plan’s new marketing plan geared toward the unemployed read this story.