May 15, 2012: Over the past three years, the 13 states (Colorado, Kansas, Maine, Minnesota, Nevada, New York, North Carolina, Oregon, Texas, Virginia, Washington, Wisconsin, and West Virginia) funded by the Health Services and Resources Administration (HRSA) State Health Access Program (SHAP) have used their SHAP funding to expand access to affordable health care. SHAP grantees have taken a number of approaches in expanding coverage and engaging stakeholders in the expansion process and it’s important to take note of the lessons that can be drawn from this important program.
In particular, many states focused on improving outreach and enrollment strategies to get more people covered. Lessons from five SHAP states regarding to their activities related to outreach, streamlining application and enrollment processes, and modernizing eligibility determination systems are highlighted in two new issue briefs:
- “SHAP Enrollment and Eligibility Activities: Implications for Process and System Modernization under National Health Reform”
- “Best Practices in SHAP Outreach, Eligibility and Enrollment Activities”
The experiences of the SHAP states offer countless lessons for states implementing health reform. Many of these lessons are featured in the The SHAP DiaBlog, a wonderful resource developed by the National Academy for State Health Policy (NASHP), our technical assistance partner on the SHAP.
We want to congratulate all the SHAP states on the successes they achieved through the SHAP program and for all the coverage gains they realized. We look forward to providing continued data and evaluation assistance to the SHAP states as they implement the final months of their SHAP activities.