Meeting Minutes (reported sequentially following meeting agenda format)

Over 100 participants attended representing 40 different agencies

 Welcome and introductions (Suzy Sonnier, CKF Chair, Executive Director of Children’s Cabinet) - Suzy invited participants to introduce themselves and acknowledged Representative Monica Walker as well as Stephanie Geiger from Congressman Charles Boustany’s office in Lafayette. She also acknowledged the Covering Kids & Families Steering Committee members and staff.

LA Health Care Reform Efforts (Liz Sumrall, Senior Health Care Advisor, Office of the Secretary, Department of Health & Hospitals) - Liz gave a comprehensive presentation on the health care reform efforts underway through the Department of Health & Hospitals as directed by the Governor’s Office. Her discussion included a review of the:

• Governor’s Health Care Reform Panel : quarterly meetings from June 2004 - June 2006 composed of national health care policy experts, legislative leaders, government leaders, and a representative from each of the nine regional consortia.

* Next meeting will be on Thursday, March 17, 2005 at the Baton Rouge Marriott, 5500 Hilton Avenue from 8-3:30pm

• Consortia Workgroups : working in the nine DHH regions on
• Health care financing
• Uninsured
• Long-term Care
• Louisiana Health Information Institute
• Transportation

• 10 Areas for Reform
• Reform long term care
• Focus on the sickest people
• Emphasize prevention
• Reduce prescription drug costs
• Investigate fraud and abuse
• Use electronic records
• Get the most out of federal funding
• Leverage federal flexibility
• Make Medicaid the payer of last resort
• Evaluate the program

(Please contact us at (504) 586-8509 x 22 for a hard copy of the PowerPoint presentation)  

Introduction of Rodney Alexander (Sandra Adams, Maternal & Child Health Coalition)

Sandra introduced Congressman Rodney Alexander. Sandra highlighted Congressman Alexander’s involvement in the original LaCHIP legislation passed in 1998 and his on-going commitment to Louisiana families. She also urged the Congressman to advocate strongly for Louisiana to receive its share of federal funding for Medicaid outreach through the President’s “Cover the Kids” initiative.  

Federal Perspective (Congressman Rodney Alexander)

Congressman Alexander talked about his commitment to the original legislation for SCHIP, which brought about the creation of LaCHIP and his subsequent work to provide sustaining funds for these programs. He also spoke about the Medicaid financing crisis and the rising costs of health care and the government’s efforts to contain costs.

Recognition to Tammi Fleming (Ruth Kennedy, LaCHIP Director, Medicaid Deputy Director) - Ruth talked about Tammi and the outstanding work conducted by her project ‘Health Care for All’ at Kingsley House in New Orleans, specifically, the Walker/Talker program that has resulted in 4,000 children getting health care coverage through Medicaid. Ruth mentioned the cooperative nature of the relationship and the importance of the information that is shared with the state Medicaid program as a result of the Walker & Talkers seeing families face to face. Their contributions are invaluable to the community and to the general mission of reducing the number of uninsured children in the New Orleans region. Tammi was recently invited to participate in a forum by President Bush to highlight exceptional outreach strategies to enroll children in Medicaid and a video clip was shown of that forum. Tammi Flemming was awarded a Certificate of Appreciation from Covering Kids and Families.

CBO Panel discussion (moderator: Kyle Viator, Medicaid Outreach Director)

Panelists: Tammi Fleming, Program Director, Health Care for All, Kingsley House, New Orleans; Donna Winters , CKF Northeast Coalition Coordinator, Children’s Coalition for NELA; Lin Stewart , CKF Coalition Coordinator, CHRISTUS St. Francis Cabrini Hospital

• The panelists discussed outreach efforts, funding issues, and the importance of partnerships.
• Region 8 Consortia - Donna Winters , who chairs the Region 8 Consortia, reported that access to care and the uninsured emerged as the two top issues for that region. Also the lack of providers is a huge problem.
• The panelists were asked what can community based organizations (CBO’s) do that the State cannot? They have more face-to-face time with clients. Their community presence provides a level of credibility that the state may not have because of peoples’ general fear or distrust of government. CBO’s can work as advocates for health care providers and on other issues such as transportation, a huge barrier to accessing good care. CBO’s help families understand their rights and responsibilities. CBO’s can engage community support and participation such as the project funded by the Rapides Foundation in Central Louisiana that is utilizing the Walker/Talker model of Tammi Fleming’s program in New Orleans .
• The panelists were asked if there should be more contact points for face-to-face time with the clients? The panelists felt that more could be done to better coordinate with people in existing places that serve children and families, such as the nurses, social workers, even secretaries in schools; the court systems and faith-based groups, etc. It was also mentioned that certified enrollment centers must be consistent with their service so they can maintain a level of reliability within the community they serve.

Cover The Uninsured Week (Corliss Simpson, Cover The Uninsured Week 2004 Field Organizer) - Corliss gave a review of last year’s campaign for the ‘Cover The Uninsured Week’ (CTUW). The CTUW Coalition consisted of 110 agencies and organized 65 events including health fairs, small business owner conferences and the development of an inter-faith coalition to mobilize support from the faith-based community. This year’s campaign will be during the week of May 1-8, 2005 and we encourage participants to consider hosting an event in their community. There will be specific funding for the New Orleans region and details for that effort will be coming soon, look out for more on the Covering Kids & Families website, www.lacoveringkids.org. More information regarding the national efforts and a plethora of resources such as national reports, data, campaign materials, etc. is available on the CTUW website, www.covertheuninsured.org

Wrap-Up & Announcements (Suzy Sonnier)

• Medicaid announced that they are seeking input for modifications to the LaCHIP application which is due by Friday March 11, 2005

The next CKF Statewide Coalition meeting will be held on Friday August 5 th, 2005