Health-e-Arizona is a web-based enrollment application for public insurance and community discount health care programs.  It was developed by El Rio Health Center through a unique public/private partnership involving AHCCCS, Arizona Department of Economic Security, the Community Health Centers Collaborative Ventures, and Deloitte Consulting.  Although the primary goal of the program is, like Prop 204 and PCAP, to reduce the high number of uninsured and underinsured people in Arizona, the premise is complementary: increasing eligibility for insurance or discounted care is only as good as our ability to connect people with the benefits for which they are eligible.  Therefore, Health-e-Arizona is designed to quickly and easily determine eligibility for benefits, improve coordination of care, reduce duplication of services, and improve healthcare services to the public.

The program was launched in June 2002.  A patient's data is entered quickly and easily on the website and becomes a permanent, secure record on the server.  Subsequently, all required documentation is faxed and matched to the application via bar coding.  Opportunities for human or mechanical error (lost mail, lost/separated documentation, math calculation errors) are substantially reduced.  El Rio automatically receives notification of a patient's status-previously only the patient received notice-and can provide additional assistance as necessary.  Health-e-Arizona provides a "one-stop shopping" website for patients to apply for coverage, streamlining the application process, decreasing processing time at the State level, and significantly reducing human and mechanical errors.

The results have been gratifying.  Today 2500 households per month across Arizona are being screened with Health-e-Arizona.  We have been able to cut the time from submission to disposition from several months to less than one month.  Client satisfaction among both patients and application assistants has skyrocketed.  We have been able to secure some form of assistance for 90 percent of applicants.  Sources of assistance include AHCCCS, KidsCare (Arizona’s SCHIP program), PCAP, and sliding fee scales.

In recognition of the success of the program, ComputerWorld selected El Rio as one of its 2003 Laureates from around the world.  The awards are made to projects where the "use of information technology has been especially noteworthy for the originality of its conception, the breadth of its vision, and the significance of its benefit to society.”  Each of the 200 Laureates' case statements resides permanently in the Smithsonian and is available on the web (www.cwheroes.org ).

We also expanded the reach of the program by providing the application to and training personnel to use Health-e-Arizona in all the Community health Centers through Arizona.  We developed a training manual for users, as well as a lessons-learned handbook.  In the coming year, we will continue to provide training and disseminate the application throughout Arizona.  As of July of 2007 other state assistance programs were integrated into Health-e-Arizona; programs such as food stamps, cash assistance, and TANF. 

To access Health-e-Arizona, please visit their website at:
http://www.healthearizona.org/