Medicaid Managed Care - U.S. Senate Special Committee on Aging

168 Communicating the Quality Message
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Medica Health Plans currently has customer service representatives assigned
exclusively to its Medica Choice <strong>Care</strong> enrollees. Importandy, Medica Health
Plans recently moved its <strong>Medicaid</strong> customer service representatives into the
same work unit and physical space as its <strong>Medicaid</strong> access representatives so the
two groups could work side-by-side and better coordinate their efforts. Some of
the customer service representatives are also being cross-trained eo serve as
access representatives.
Allina's Medica Health Plans serve nearly one million members. They offer
a broad range of self-funded and fully insured health plan products, including a
<strong>Medicaid</strong> product, now known as Medica Choice <strong>Care</strong>.
Of Medica Health Plans' current <strong>Medicaid</strong> access representatives, several
speak either Russian, Hmong, Spanish, or Vietnamese. These languages represent
the four largest language subgroups (besides English) among Medica
Health Plans' <strong>Medicaid</strong> population. Members can bypass Medica Health Plans'
English-speaking customer service line and call a Russian-, Hmong-, Spanish-,
or Vietnamese-speaking access representative directly when they have questions
or need assistance. <strong>Special</strong> phone lines have been set up to handle these calls.
Medica Health Plans has also initiated a program called Interpreter Services
for members who need an interpreter to go with them to a doctor's or dentist's
office or to a mental health or chemical dependency treatment facility. A member
in need of the service calls a Medica Health Plans access representative, who
then arranges, through one of the interpreter agencies under contract with
Medica Health Plans, to have an interpreter at the health provider's office when
the member arrives for his or her appointment. The access representative also
notifies the provider that an interpreter will be there.
Medica Health Plans set up its bilingual phone lines in 1994. It soon became
clear, however, that hiring a bilingual staff, hooking up special phone lines, and
having additional interpreters on-call were only the first steps. In order to get
people to use these services, Medica Health Plans had to find an effective way
of informing <strong>Medicaid</strong> members of their existence. But how do you get the word
out to people who do not read or speak English, and, in some cases, do not read
any language? Medica Health Plans found that the best way was by reaching out
in person to each member. So, in addition to printing the phone numbers of the
bilingual access representatives in every brochure and piece of informational literature
sent to members, the State Public Programs staff made a strong effort to
personally notify members of its foreign-language services. They called members
to tell them about the services. They even set up displays at clinics serving large
numbers of non-English-speaking clients at which they handed out wallet cards
with the special bilingual numbers on them. Once one member began calling
one of the special phone lines and using the services, he or she would usually
pass on the number to relatives or friends. In the end, this word-of-mouth promotion
proved to be the most effective way of getting the word out about
Medica Health Plans' access services. Today, the access representatives handle
about 70 foreign-language calls daily.
Medica Health Plans' State Public Programs staff has also made sure that
all written material sent to <strong>Medicaid</strong> members have sections translated into the
four main languages. Such translations appear prominently on the inside front
cover of the member handbook, for example. In addition, Living Smarrer, the
quarterly magazine sent to every Medics Choice <strong>Care</strong> member, runs translations
of informational articles about such topics as prenatal care and well-child
checkups in every issue.