Health Insurance News and Updates
Navigator Programs Provide Much Needed Application Assistance to Underinsured Communities
MHP Salud has had a Navigator program for over six years. The program uses Community Health Workers (CHWs), trained as Navigators, to provide education and application assistance to the predominantly Spanish-speaking communities along Texas’ southern border. Today, the program is only one of two Navigator programs left in Texas, which has the highest rates of uninsured individuals of any state (17.7%)4.
Blog Topics
Community Health Workers in Michigan, A Historic Look at the Rise of the Profession
The first Community Health Workers in Michigan were trained in the 1960s to provide services to their communities. Around this time, the federal government began providing funding for community-based programs that used CHWs to reach underserved communities. Community Health Workers in Michigan and across the country began having an impact on the national level when in 1978, CHWs formed the New Professionals Special Primary Interest Group in the American Public Health Association (APHA).
Inside Texas’ Border Communities: What are Colonias?
Many of MHP Salud’s direct service programs operate inside the Rio Grande Valley’s colonias, which are defined by The Texas Office of the Secretary of State as residential areas along the Texas-Mexico border that may lack basic living necessities like potable water, septic or sewer systems, electricity, paved roads, or safe and sanitary housing.
These Community Health Worker Program Models Lower Patient Medical Costs
An analysis by the Connecticut Health Foundation has found that Connecticut healthcare organizations can improve patient health and save money by implementing community health worker programs.
