By Taylor Sisk
Department of Health and Human Services Sec. Kathleen Sebelius announced on Thursday that Community Care of North Carolina will be one of 105 organizations across the country to receive funding to help people shop for health insurance under the Affordable Care Act, or Obamacare.
Enrollment in the health insurance exchanges begins Oct. 1 and the program goes into effect Jan. 1.
Community Care of North Carolina (CCNC) is a not-for-profit statewide network of primary care practices that focuses on preventive measures and continuity of care. CCNC received just under $2 million from HHS, the fourth-highest grant awarded. A total of $67 million in grants was made available.
We play this facilitator role regularly because of our unique statewide infrastructure,” said Paul Mahoney, CCNC’s director of communications. “We have people and relationships everywhere in North Carolina and a central organization to help disseminate info and pull it all together.”
“Navigators will be among the many resources available to help consumers understand their coverage options in the Marketplace,” Sebelius said in a statement.
“A network of volunteers on the ground in every state – health care providers, business leaders, faith leaders, community groups, advocates, and local elected officials – can help spread the word and encourage their neighbors to get enrolled,” she said.
To become certified, the navigators will be required to complete 20 to 30 hours of training to provide “unbiased information in a culturally competent manner to consumers” about health insurance in general, the new marketplace, qualified health plans and public programs. They will be required to abide by strict security and privacy standards.
“I suspect the biggest request will be to show uninsured individuals how to determine whether or not they will qualify for subsidized coverage,” Mahoney said.
He said he anticipates the consortium will eventually deploy about 40 navigators, some of whom will likely come from existing staff at CCNC and consortium partners, with some new hires, though the details have not yet been worked out.
Also earning grants were Randolph Hospital in Asheboro, which received $352,320; Mountain Projects, which serves Haywood and Jackson counties, $359,750; and the Alcohol/Drug Council of North Carolina, which will provide services for people recovering from mental illness or substance abuse, $324,798.
Republish our articles for free, online or in print, under a Creative Commons license.
Republish this article
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
You are free to use NC Health News content under the following conditions:
- You can copy and paste this html tracking code into articles of ours that you use, this little snippet of code allows us to track how many people read our story.
- Please do not reprint our stories without our bylines, and please include a live link to NC Health News under the byline, like this:
By Jane Doe
North Carolina Health News - Finally, at the bottom of the story (whether web or print), please include the text:
North Carolina Health News is an independent, non-partisan, not-for-profit, statewide news organization dedicated to covering all things health care in North Carolina. Visit NCHN at northcarolinahealthnews.org. (on the web, this can be hyperlinked)