Price of immunization shots to change

A tight state budget for the new fiscal year may change the price of immunizations paid by some families in the Magic Valley. State-provided immunizations for all children, regardless if they're covered by health insurance, ended on July 1st.

To help alleviate what officials with the South-Central Public Health District are calling a considerable financial burden, they will continue to bill Blue Cross of Idaho or Regence Blue Shield of Idaho, for families with coverage.

The health district will require an initial 20 percent payment at the time of the immunizations, with the remaining 80 percent of the costs billed to the child's parent or guardian.

Families enrolled in Medicaid, those with no health insurance, or health insurance that doesn't cover immunizations will continue to receive the state-provided immunizations through the 'Vaccine For Children' Program.

Many children without coverage

Craig — Listen to health care officials, and they’ll say it hasn’t been easy persuading families to enroll their children into Medicaid or Child Health Plan insurance, even when those children are eligible and uninsured.

Evette Simmons, eligibility and outreach coordinator for the Northwest Colorado Visiting Nurse Association, said her office tried several gimmicks, with varying effectiveness.

However, despite the fact that children’s Medicaid and CHP insurance costs nearly are nonexistent for enrolled families, some still are reluctant to sign up.

Simmons hopes a $40 million grant package for children’s health insurance — announced Monday and available through federal recovery funds — may help the VNA carry its message further.

That message is simple: Pro­viding health insurance to children is important.

“That’s a question like, ‘Why should people be insured,’” Simmons said. “To be eligible and be able to get that coverage but just not do it, is a shame.”

A widespread shame in Moffat, Routt and Rio Blanco counties, she added.

Of the children eligible for Medicaid or CHP insurance in Moffat County, an estimated 20.5 percent are uncovered, equal to 217 children.

In Rio Blanco County, that number jumps to 22.8 percent, or 99 children.

Routt County has the worst participation rate, with 38.2 percent of eligible children — or 323 children — now without insurance.

As tough as the numbers are, though, they may, in fact, be worse, Simmons said. Each of those estimates is based on 2007 data, collected before the recession forced the region’s unemployment rates to double.

Simmons said the Colorado Health Foundation recently quoted a statistic that about 19,000 people across the state lose their health insurance for every percentage point increase in statewide unemployment.

Those numbers won’t directly translate to Northwest Colorado, but Simmons said there is a correlation between fewer people with health care coverage and rising unemployment, which has struck this region, too.

From September 2008, when the stock market began to crash, until May 2009, which is the most recent data available from the state, unemployment in Moffat County went from 3.4 percent to 6.7 percent, according to the Colorado Department of Labor and Employment.

During the same time period, the state recorded an increase in unemployment in Rio Blanco County from 2.3 percent to 5.5 percent.

State records also show Routt County, in addition to having the highest percentage of eligible but uninsured children, had the highest unemployment spike of the three counties, from 3.4 percent in September 2008 to 8.7 percent in May 2009.

“Those numbers of unenrolled children are really high, and they’re probably even a little higher now,” Simmons said.

The VNA is now assessing what benefit the government’s recovery grants may have.

Simmons said the grants are for “outreach,” but that’s a very broad term.

“Can we use it for staffing here, to bring people into the office, or for marketing?” she said. “And once we bring more people into the office to enroll their children, can we use any of the money for extra staffing to see those people?”

Hopefully, the money will enable the VNA to get more people to enroll their children, Simmons said, though she thinks the organization may have an uphill battle against some people’s perceptions.

“I think part of it is a stigma about Medicaid and CHP, especially in Routt County,” she said. “They don’t want to come out in public and say, ‘I need help.’ Some people say they’ll never go on Medicaid because they don’t want the government’s insurance.”

Getting people to be proactive and enroll their children in a health care plan before they need to see a doctor also can be a struggle, Simmons said.

“When you can’t pay your electricity bill, signing up for health insurance isn’t always a top priority,” she said.

The grant application will be a complicated process, and like all recovery grants, there won’t be much time before applications are due, Simmons said.

In that regard, the VNA hopes to know what grant applications it will submit by this week or early next week, she added.

However, residents don’t have to wait until then to enroll their children or see whether they’re eligible.

The VNA provides eligibility experts who can consult with families, Simmons said. VNA offices are at 745 Russell St. or 824-8233 in Craig, and 940 Central Park Dr., Suite 101, or 879-1632 in Steamboat Springs.

Medicaid and CHP eligibility is determined by family size and annual income. Simmons said a family’s cost to have a child insured under Medicaid is zero, while CHP can cost up to a one-time $25 enrollment fee for a year and $5 co-pays for office visits.

Children are eligible for both programs until age 19.

Children's bills approved by Legislature

Three House bills affecting the care and education of the state’s youngest residents sailed through the Senate late Thursday and are headed to the governor for his signature.

The bills, all sponsored by Rep. Teresa Schooley, D-Newark, passed unanimously.

House Substitute for House Bill 119, gives schools more financial flexibility to shift public dollars into the classroom and away from administrative overhead.

House Bill 139 allows parents whose income exceeds the current limits for the Children's Health Insurance Program to purchase coverage. This will cost the state nothing because parents would buy into the program at the price the state would have spent.

House Bill 199 requires insurance carriers to cover developmental screenings for infants and toddlers, which has been recommended by the American Academy of Pediatrics. Early screenings, which cost about 3 cents per policy holder, will improve the detection of developmental problems and allow more effective treatment, proponents said.

The three bills were part of a package of five child-centered pieces of legislation advocated by Lt. Gov. Matt Denn, who held a rally outside Legislative Hall on Thursday to promote them. The two other bills, which both originated in the House, also passed the Senate later that day.

One replaces the Delaware Student Testing Program with a computerized test that students will take at least twice a year to benchmark their progress, with their highest results counting. The other bill creates a two-year academic achievement awards program to give financial incentives to the schools that make the most progress in educating at-risk children. The awards would be paid for using federal stimulus money.