Access to Care and Coverage

Access to care has always been one of the main tenants of Vitalyst’s work. This year, new and innovative solutions were employed to expand health insurance outreach, develop systems that bridge healthcare and social services, and evolve traditional models of Emergency Medical Services and First Responders.

Health Insurance Outreach

Holding equity at the center of our health insurance work, Vitalyst and the Cover Arizona Coalition tailored outreach efforts toward zip codes and census tracts with the highest rates of uninsured individuals. Digital media campaigns were launched during the height of the pandemic, the Marketplace Open Enrollment period, and during a special enrollment period, ultimately resulting in more than twelve million impressions. With the world spending more time online, this was an important way to reach our most vulnerable populations.

Vitalyst also continued to manage and support the statewide enrollment assister trainings. Over the course of three virtual sessions, more than two hundred assisters were trained to help with insurance enrollment.  Through our direct funding support of local assister organizations, more than 18,000 Arizonans were enrolled into low to no-cost health insurance, and over 400 partnerships were built to promote coverage.

Healthcare & Social Service Integration

In a major shift toward developing a true healthcare system, Arizona’s Medicaid agency (AHCCCS) included new provisions in their five-year plan to pay healthcare providers for addressing their patients’ social determinants of health (SDOH).  Simultaneously, the agency, along with the Health Current, 211 Arizona and community partners, selected a statewide SDOH referral platform that will advance networks between healthcare and social services. Vitalyst advised and supported both solutions through facilitated discussions, formal letters and various meetings in order to ensure the voices and needs of community-based organizations were considered in developing these transformational innovations.

Mobile Integrated Health (MIH)/First Responders

Vitalyst’s work to connect first responders to enhanced training and services has grown immensely.  From 2019 to 2021 the number of first responder partners identified and connected increased from six to twenty-one.  Nine of Arizona’s fifteen counties now have approved protocols in place for Emergency Triage, Treat & Transport (ET3), a national model which expands the ability of first responders to get people the right care in the right place at the right time.

A new effort also was launched, highlighting the documentary Ernie & Joe: Crisis Cops. This film allowed Vitalyst to conduct community conversations that brought first responders together with behavioral health and the community to discuss alternative crisis response options. The sessions were held around the state and included special viewings for rural and tribal first responders. To hear a podcast about this film, click here.