Grant Partners

The Massachusetts Senior Action Council (MSAC) will address key public policy and community issues affecting the health and well-being for the 65 and over population, empowering its members to use their own voices to address key public policy and community issues. Advocacy will focus on the growing disparity in out-of-pocket costs and affordability. MSAC will coordinate the “Bridge the Gap” campaign, which focuses on health care affordability for seniors.

Ecu-Health Care will utilize broadcast and print media to inform residents of health coverage options; provide presentations to community organizations; educate area businesses about health coverage options for employees; and work with physicians’ groups and health and human service organizations to facilitate referrals. Churn will be reduced through education during one-on-one application assistance appointments and health insurance literacy is integrated into a comprehensive packet for applicants.

The Health Starts at Home Initiative supports four partnerships that bring together housing and health care organizations to support work that demonstrates the positive effects of stable, affordable housing to children's health outcomes, identify promising new and existing models for collaboration that can be brought to scale, decrease health care costs, and decrease costs related to homelessness.  Families eligible for participation have children under the age of 12, and are experiencing housing instability.  The evaluation partners for Health Starts at Home, Health Resources in Action and the Urban Institute, are conducting both outcome and process evaluations to measure whether and how improved housing stability affects the health of children, as well as to document successes and challenges, and develop best practices for creating these types of health care and housing partnerships. 

Hilltown Community Health Centers (HCHC) will work with small businesses, Councils on Aging, schools, employers, medical providers, and community organizations to conduct outreach, advertise in newsletters, print, and social media. They will work with the Connector to identify and target outreach to consumers who need to renew their coverage and partner with sheriff’s departments, courts and probation offices to reach recently incarcerated and court-involved individuals who experience higher rates of churn. To address health insurance literacy, they will develop consumer-friendly education tools and collateral. 

Massachusetts Housing and Shelter Alliance (MHSA) serves unaccompanied homeless adults throughout the state, with a primary focus on the chronically homeless.  MHSA will analyze the impact of housing as a social determinant of health among the chronically homeless population through two permanent supportive housing programs, Home & Healthy for Good and Pay for Success.  In partnership with the Commonwealth Medicine division of UMass Medical School and Analysis Group, the study will estimate the impact of participation in these programs on health care use and costs, using Medicaid claims and enrollment data. 

Dukes County will participate in community outreach events, and use paid and unpaid advertising and social media to promote affordable insurance information. They will develop a folder with handouts for appointments, and adapt a checklist for account set-up, enrollment and payment information, primary care provider selection, and making appointments. It will also set up reminder systems for clients with pending action steps. 

Boston Center for Independent Living (BCIL) will provide services to and seek full integration for individuals with disabilities into society. BCIL will advocate to policymakers and legislative leaders, maintain and strengthen operations for the Disability Advocates Advancing our Healthcare Rights (DAAHR) Coalition, organize the disability community against any threats to coverage or affordability, develop organizational technical expertise, and provide policy analysis and input to the field, particularly related to One Care. BCIL will also increase capacity to focus on behavioral health integration and social equity.

The National Alliance on Mental Illness Massachusetts (NAMI Mass) will strive for access to services for all who need them and end the stigma around mental illness.  Their strategies include educating families and individuals to understand their illnesses and advocating for needed services. NAMI will strengthen their policy focus on the following issues: a lack of uniform access to health-related benefits; lack of recognition of cost-effective treatment modalities by MassHealth; and inequitable treatment of disability coverage for mental illness.

The Massachusetts League of Community Health Centers (the League) will address the changes in the policy and health care environment with vulnerable populations, community health centers, and their communities.  A main goal is to analyze health care reform policies, monitor proposals for change, and educate community health centers and partner organizations. The League will also assemble health centers, community members, providers, and advocates in an action-based coalition for maintaining and expanding coverage.

Community Health Programs (CHP) will target outreach in nearby towns with over 100 uninsured residents, and attend community events to connect with the underserved, using its mobile van to reach those in geographically isolated locations. It will reduce churn by proactively communicating via phone and email that insurance is about to lapse, and provide instructions for seeking assistance. CHP will also create a Facebook page to explain common insurance terms, and post and translate sample letters from MassHealth.

Friends of Jewish Community Housing for the Elderly (JCHE) provides supportive, affordable, independent senior housing in Massachusetts, and owns 1,200 apartments that are home to 1,500 low-income older adults in Brighton, Newton, and Framingham.  In collaboration with the LeadingAge Center for Applied Research, JCHE will seek to demonstrate the effectiveness of affordable housing on the quality of life for the organization's seniors, as well as an impact on costs to the government and health care system.  It will include metro Boston seniors who are low- and moderate-income with similar demographics (income, age, ethnicity, risk profile) living in subsidized housing and receiving supportive services.  The provision of housing will be studied as an intervention at three levels, using Medicaid and Medicare utilization data:  1) housing without services, 2) housing with resident service coordination only, and 3) housing with significant service enrichment. 

Massachusetts Law Reform Institute’s (MLRI) health care work targets vulnerable populations who face unusual challenges in obtaining and maintaining health insurance coverage and care. MLRI will provide legal advocacy focused on policy and regulation issues in the Commonwealth in defense of low-income and vulnerable populations. One key issue is retaining coverage for those affected by redetermination through detailed critiques and analyses to identify standards and practices that are not in compliance with applicable law.

South Middlesex Opportunity Council (SMOC) provides housing and supportive services to disadvantaged, homeless, single adults in three regions of the state:  MetroWest/Framingham, Central Mass/Worcester, and the Merrimack Valley/Lowell.  SMOC will evaluate the impact of its Housing First program that recognizes an immediate and primary focus on helping clients access and sustain permanent housing, to test the hypothesis that stable housing leads to improved health outcomes, and ultimately, a reduction in health costs.  Three hundred clients will be placed into housing and evaluated as part of this project.  SMOC will identify those clients with the highest service needs at entry into shelter, and then follow them into and throughout their housing placement in order to measure their health outcomes at various points along the continuum of homelessness and housing.

Harbor Health Services will participate in off-site joint outreach sessions at social service agencies, supermarket chains, ethnic markets, Councils on Aging, Veterans Agencies, sites serving behavioral health and developmental delayed persons, subsidized housing, state employment and job training sites, schools, food pantries, WIC program sites, health fairs, and via social media. It will create a health insurance literacy community assessment, and develop user-friendly materials that educate clients on how to use health insurance benefits. Finally, it will dedicate a phone number and webpage for residents to reach staff for enrollment assistance, and execute a social media campaign.

Family Health Center of Worcester (FHCW) will partner with community organizations to receive referrals for individuals needing enrollment assistance. They will provide one-on-one sessions and events about minimizing the risk of losing coverage, review all eligibility determination letters, utilize its EMR to record pending expiration dates, and use automated call center software to reach uninsured patients in multiple languages. The organization will conduct quarterly “health insurance 101” trainings, provide regular patient orientation sessions, and make health insurance literacy information and resources available through patient computer kiosks.