Community Service Society of New York

In March 2020, the United States declared a public health emergency and enacted historic COVID-19 relief legislation that included increased Medicaid funding to states.

A rare silver lining of the pandemic is that health insurance coverage rates in New York State are now at record highs and the number of uninsured New Yorkers has declined. However, the public health emergency is set to expire at the end of the year, at which point many federal policies, including a continuous coverage requirement that prohibited states from terminating Medicaid enrollees’ coverage, will be terminated. In 2022, NYHealth awarded CSS a grant to support a statewide network of community-based enrollment organizations to reach 8.8 million New Yorkers who needed to re-enroll in health insurance coverage at the end of the public health emergency.

Under this grant, CSS worked to structure a central networking hub, developed a re-grant solicitation plan, and integrated messaging and communication tools that have been developed with the support of an earlier NYHealth grant. CSS worked with the New York State Department of Health on a webinar series to mobilize partners, and it  engaged stakeholders whose member organizations share similar goals. CSS disseminated a request for proposals to State-funded Navigator and enrollment organizations and identified target communities with people most at risk for coverage loss to encourage organizations in those areas to apply. It also provided strategic support to the outreach networks for the public health emergency wind-down period by leading interactive learning sessions for community-based organizations and providing access to an online portal with resources. These community-based organizations led outreach campaigns using tested strategies such as text messages, phone calls, presentations, and social media content. Lastly, CSS tracked outreach and enrollment data and provided additional technical assistance as needed.