Wednesday, May 26, 1999 | 11:31 a.m.
The Clark County Health District will decide Thursday whether to give its approval to an initiative aimed at enrolling more uninsured children in either a state or federal health care program.
The Great Basin Primary Care Association, a Carson City-based nonprofit agency serving indigent and underserved populations, received an $855,000 grant from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation earlier this month. The money is to be used to enroll poor children in either Nevada Check-Up or Medicaid under a program called the "Nevada Covering Kids Coalition."
The health district will receive $110,000 each year for three fiscal years from the association. Also approximately $75,000 in additional funding will be furnished annually by the state and Southern Nevada coalitions and the health district.
Fran Courtney, director of clinics and nursing services with the health district, said the money will be used to hire a program coordinator and support staff to identify and administer the funds.
"It doesn't seem like the word is getting out in the community, and the children aren't signing up," Courtney said. "Many families don't seem to understand that they are eligible for this program."
Roger Volker, director of the Great Basin Primary Care Association, said the money will be used to develop outreach programs to identify needy children through such organizations as the Boys and Girls Clubs, the Nevada Cooperative Extension offices, libraries, hospitals, churches, school nurses and organizations and agencies that work with children.
"We will be stressing training, recruitment and advocacy," Volker said. "These groups will become the first-line advocates for children."
As of May 19, there have been 12,582 children who applied for the Nevada Check-Up program statewide, Joanne Grundman, chief of the program, said. Of those, 6,349 have been approved and 5,968 have been enrolled.
In Clark County, Grundman said 6,726 children have applied; 3,332 were accepted and 3,146 were enrolled.
Grundman said the state is hoping to have 7,500 children enrolled by Oct. 1, the one-year anniversary date of Nevada Check-Up.
Children whose families don't meet the Nevada Check-Up income guidelines will be enrolled in Medicaid.
Volker said Nevada is the 30th state to receive Robert Wood Johnson Foundation funds.
The Interim Health Care Committee of the Nevada Legislature conducted a study in 1998 of the state's uninsured children. It concluded that there may be as many as 42,238 youths up to 18 years old who are uninsured. It also found that 52,924 children had lapses of three, to six and nine months without insurance.
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