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The National Center for Benefits Outreach and Enrollment is compiling a database of promising practices related to benefits outreach and enrollment. We invite you to review these promising practices and cost-effective strategies that can strengthen your local or state efforts to increase access to benefits for seniors and younger adults with disabilities.
AREA OF FOCUS: OUTREACH AND CONNECTION
Pharmacy Assistance Program Outreach Campaign Yields
Successful Strategies
What do you do when you have a generous pharmacy assistance
program with low enrollment? Read on to find out how Minnesota
more than doubled their enrollment within a six month timeframe!
Who was the target audience?
Individuals with qualifying lower incomes and limited assets
that would make them eligible for the Minnesota State Pharmacy
Assistance Program (SPAP).
What did they do?
At the end of 1999, almost one year after the MN State Pharmacy
Assistance Program's implementation, only 1,932 individuals
were enrolled in the program. In order to boost participation
in the program, the Department of Human Services and State
Unit on Aging launched a seven-month outreach campaign to
introduce and market the new program to eligible individuals.
The campaign featured promotion of the Senior LinkAge® Line
as a vehicle for Medicare Savings Programs and prescription
drug program screening.
Promotional activities included:
- A media campaign that included radio spots in English,
Spanish and Hmong; an op-ed by the Governor; and press
kits that contained a press release, companion newspaper
piece, and Public Service Announcements.
- Senior LinkAge® Line brochures and outreach materials
funded by CMS, such as a multicolored posters, tear-off
pads that could be stapled to prescriptions, and fliers,
magnets, and door/jar grippers with catchy taglines.
- A mailing of outreach and media materials to partners
(pharmacists, family physicians, community health centers,
other providers, family members) and an initiative to
include fliers in other mailings (e.g. utility bills).
What was the result?
According to the State Unit on Aging, the most effective
outreach tools were the radio spots and press kits, which
led to widespread media coverage. The pharmacy tear-offs
and the jar grippers were also noted as very effective.
During the first two months of the campaign, the Senior
LinkAge® Line received more than 3,600 calls about the pharmacy
assistance program, compared to a few hundred calls per
month on that topic prior to the campaign.
From the end of January through June 2000, enrollment in
the pharmacy assistance program increased from 2,111 to
4,838.
For more information:
K. Glaun, “Medicare Savings Programs to Assist Low Income
Medicare Beneficiaries: Working Paper on Medicare Savings
Programs in Minnesota.” Kaiser Commission on Medicaid and
the Uninsured. (December 2002). To view the full text of
this report, click here.
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