Engaging An Underserved Population in Telehealth: Findings from Texas Children’s Health Plan’s Survey of Medicaid Members

Texas Children’s Health Plan, founded by Texas Children’s Hospital as the nation’s first health maintenance organization (HMO) for children, provides a Medicaid and Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) for children and families in Southeast Texas. To better care for a largely underserved population, Texas Children’s Health Plan launched its online urgent care program, Anywhere Care, in May 2019. Over the next year, Texas Children’s engaged its largely Medicaid and CHIP populations in using virtual care in several ways—from both English and Spanish email communications and website promotion to family events designed to enroll members in the benefit. In December 2020, Texas Children’s Health Plan surveyed its enrolled telehealth members to better understand Medicaid and CHIP member sentiments toward telehealth, including what they find most valuable in a virtual care visit, how best to communicate the benefit, and what barriers were preventing telehealth adoption.

In this session, Laura Laux Higgins, Director of Strategic Projects, Texas Children’s Health Plan team will share the findings of this survey, discuss key insights, and reveal how they were able to optimize the Anywhere Care program and engagement tactics to better serve Medicaid and CHIP members.

Learning objectives:

What drives Medicaid and CHIP member interest and use in telehealth?
Key barriers to telehealth adoption among Medicaid and CHIP members
Communication and engagement tools that drive virtual visits among these populations
How language barriers could play a role in members’ understanding of telehealth
How to take these survey findings and optimize telehealth programs and reduce barriers to utilization for Medicaid and CHIP members