Armed with new funds, Thrive Allen County is taking steps to provide better health care services to low-income residents — in particular those who are home-bound or lack transportation.
The three-year, $60,000 grant from the Health Forward Foundation was approved in December. For the first time, it allows Thrive to reach the home-bound.
Greta Ingle, Thrive’s enrollment assistance coordinator, already has at her disposal a quiver full of tools to help lead low-income residents to better health care access — with one exception.
Up to now, Thrive’s clients had to come to its downtown Iola office, or one of the organization’s outreach events.
“We saw there was a big gap in the services we could provide,” explained Jessica Thompson, Thrive’s director of development. “With this, we’re able to go into the people’s homes and help enroll them in insurance, or provide care coordination service.”
The grant will fund a portion of Ingle’s position as a full-time employee, plus to hire another part-time staffer to handle what she hopes is a steadily growing caseload.
“We’re starting small this year,” Thompson said, “by building a good base and working out the kinks.”
Ingle is eager to get the ball rolling.
“There’s a big demand for it,” she said. “There have been lots of times I’ve had to turn people down because I couldn’t take them to the Social Security office, or to DCF (Department of Children and Families).
“Just (Wednesday) I received a call from the City of LaHarpe,” Ingle continued. “They have someone who can’t come here. Now we’re able to go there.”
Because Ingle is already certified to help residents enroll in other services, such as Medicaid, Medicare, or Affordable Care Act-related health insurance, it means greater expansion of helping others get healthy, Thompson concluded.
“This is a great program that will really fill a gap,” she said.
Ingle also is certified to help folks enroll for cash assistance through the state, or for Housing and Urban Development programs, and even once helped a client fill out a student loan application.
“We’re always looking for the gaps and how to fill them,” Ingle said.
“This was a big gap to getting people insured and helping them with non-emergent health care needs,” Thompson added. “That’s our goal; keeping them healthy.”
