Human Services

Health Care Grants

Statewide Outcome(s):

Health Care Grants supports the following statewide outcome(s).

Minnesotans are healthy.

Context:

Health Care Grants are used to provide support, infrastructure, investment or outreach that benefits enrollees in public health care programs, Medical Assistance (MA) and MinnesotaCare, and some uninsured or underinsured individuals. DHS seeks grants to augment our own operational efforts. In doing so, we engage experts outside of DHS to help ensure that eligible Minnesotans are enrolled in the appropriate health care program, and that those enrolled (especially our youngest and/or most vulnerable or hard to reach) get all the care that we are paying for. Grantees can be providers, counties, or community organizations. These grants have historically targeted projects or work that is not funded under the MA or MinnesotaCare program and that provide support to those program and enrollees. The grants are not typically for direct care.

Health Care Grants are funded from appropriations from the state General Fund and Health Care Access Fund, and some federal funds.

Strategies:

The Health Care Grants administered by DHS can change over time depending on the length of the funding or project. These grants can often be for one year or ongoing for several years and are for a specific project, demonstration or function that are usually the result of state legislation. Grantees can range from providers, counties, or community organizations. For example, one of the long-standing grants funded out of this budget activity provides payments to providers, counties, community organizations for assisting individuals with the application process for MA and MinnesotaCare.

The grants currently funded under this budget activity include:

·         Neighborhood Care Network. Provides funding to operate a consumer health care information line.

·         Outreach Grants or Minnesota Community Application Agent (MNCAA) Program. Provides funding for an external organization to effectively provide culturally appropriate outreach and renewal assistance services to Minnesotans enrolled in MA or MinnesotaCare.

·         Child and Teen Checkups and Immunization Registry Grants. Provide administrative funds for activities that support the work of local Child and Teen Checkups and Immunization Registry activities.

Results:

The DHS Health Care Administration is committed to measuring our work. One measure the Health Care Grants contribute to reducing is the percent of lower-income Minnesotans that do not have health insurance even if they are eligible for public programs. DHS has also begun to collect information on the number of successful applications completed by application agents under the MNCAA program. Although data is not yet available, in the future we will be able to report on this targeted performance measure.

Performance Measures	Previous	Current	Trend
Percent of Minnesotans lacking health insurance	9%	9.1%	Stable

Performance Measures Notes:

Compares 2009 (Previous) to 2011 (Current). Nearly three-fourths of the uninsured have some potential access to coverage but don’t take advantage of it. Source: Minnesota Department of Health, Health Access Survey (conducted semiannually).