Grant funds help with insurance
Oak Hill Baptist wins $317,742 to teach clergy about navigating maze of options
The Hernando area’s Oak Hill Baptist Church, where nationally recognized health-fitness advocate Dr. Michael Minor is pastor, expects to receive a $317,742 federal Navigator grant to train clergy to reach out to uninsured residents with enrollment in the coverage marketplace.
The award is especially gratifying, said Minor, in that it builds on his church’s long-running “health ambassador” program that provides health information.
“When we applied for this grant in June, all we had to do was plug that in,” said Minor. “It’s something we’ve already been doing.”
Oak Hill’s ministries serve the lower Delta region. For the Navigator program, the effort based at the church on Wheeler Road in western DeSoto County will expand services to cover a 40-county swath of the Delta and southwest Mississippi, Minor said.
The award to Oak Hill Baptist is part of $67 million in grants announced this month by U. S. Health and Human Services secretary Kathleen Sebelius to 105 Navigator program applicants in federally facilitated and state-partnership marketplaces. The grass-roots grantees will serve as resources for those who want additional help in shopping for and enrolling in plans beginning this fall, according to a media release from the Centers for Medicare &
Medicaid Services.
“Navigators will be among the many resources available to help consumers understand their coverage options,” 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.”
Minor said grants went to only two entities in the state, “my church and the University of Mississippi Health Center in Jackson.” He plans to go to a regional meeting with HHS officials soon to learn about implementing the Navigator program.
The Navigator effort follows other HHS initiatives this summer, including the website HealthCare. gov, with information available to consumers about fall enrollment. HHS also has launched a 24-hour consumer call center that can handle 150 languages.
Meanwhile, across the country, more than 1,200 community health centers are readying to enroll the uninsured in coverage, and a partnership with the Institute of Museum and Library Services will
When we applied for this grant in June, all we had to do was plug that in. It’s something we’ve already been doing.”
Dr. Michael Minor, Oak Hill Baptist Church pastor
enlist local branches as a resource for getting the facts to consumers on their options.
Navigator participants will be required to complete 20 to 30 hours of training for certification and will receive additional training throughout the year. Certification will be subject to annual renewal. They’ll learn the details of standard health insurance and qualified health plans, plus the new health insurance marketplaces and public programs such as the Children’s Health Insurance Program and Medicaid.
“The Navigator program just adds dollars for full-time people to provide this help,” said Minor. “We’re happy to see it expand.”
HHS has recognized, as Champions for Coverage, more than 100 national organizations and businesses that have volunteered to help spread health care information. The list includes the American Medical Association and Minor’s denomination, the National Baptist Convention, which he serves as national director of the Health Outreach and Prevention Education part- nership with HHS.
The National Baptist Convention is the nation’s largest African-American denomination. Minor, famed as “the preacher who banned fried chicken from his church,” also serves as president of Mid-South Churches Cooperative Conference, a National Baptist affiliate serving counties across Mississippi.
“Dr. Minor is a national leader in faith-based health initiatives,” said Hernando Mayor Chip Johnson, “and we’re proud of him. Everywhere I go, I tell people I’m from the same town.”
Johnson, who seeks to mesh health with policy, joined Minor in July in Washington as both spoke at the Voices for Healthy Kids anti-obesity conference, sponsored by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and the American Heart Association.
For more Navigator information, go online to cciio.cms.gov/programs/ exchanges/assistance. html. For more information on Champions for Coverage, go online to marketplace. cms. gov/ help-us/champions-forcoverage-list.pdf.