The Virginia Health Care Foundation (VHCF) has awarded Carilion Clinic a $53,237 grant to help give children a good start in life and keep them healthy.
The Project Connect grant will support an application assister who will help to enroll over 350 eligible children from Roanoke County and the City of Roanoke in Virginia’s state sponsored health insurance programs (FAMIS) via outreach and education activities.
“Children without insurance miss more school, are less likely to get treatment for childhood conditions like ear infections and asthma and dental care and too often receive necessary medical care in costly emergency rooms,” said Deborah Oswalt, VHCF’s Executive Director. “Our ultimate goal is to ensure that every eligible child has health insurance. Outreach and application assistance are critical to meeting this goal, and we are proud to partner with Carilion Clinic to help maximize the number of local children enrolled in the FAMIS programs.”
VHCF’s FAMIS outreach and enrollment initiatives are underwritten by the Virginia Department of Medical Assistance Services and the federal Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services. Eligibility for the program is based upon citizenship, family size and household income. For example, for a family of four, the maximum household annual income limit is $50,430.
The FAMIS health insurance programs provide the comprehensive benefits children need to prevent illness and to obtain the medical care that will help them if they become sick or injured (full medical, hospitalization, primary care, well child care, vision, dental, mental health services, and prescriptions). Project Connect application assisters have helped more than 93,000 children enroll in these important health insurance programs since 2000.
Funding for Carilion Clinic is part of $1.9 million in grants recently awarded by VHCF to nineteen health safety net practices and other similar organizations to expand medical, dental, behavioral health, and pharmacy services throughout the Commonwealth, and to help identify and enroll uninsured children in the state-sponsored FAMIS health insurance programs.
The Virginia Health Care Foundation is a non-profit public/private partnership with a mission to increase access to primary health care for uninsured and medically underserved Virginians. Initiated by the General Assembly and its Joint Commission on Health Care, the Foundation is observing its 25th anniversary of service to the Commonwealth. Since its inception, it has funded 392 community-based projects across the Commonwealth, and its programs and partnerships have touched the lives of more than 600,000 uninsured Virginians.
For more information about VHCF and its programs, visit www.vhcf.org or call (804) 828-5804. For more information about the FAMIS Insurance Programs, including eligibility requirements, visit www.coverva.org or call the Carilion Clinic at 540-266-KIDS to talk with an Outreach and Enrollment Application Assister.
