Legal Services of Eastern Missouri Receives $671,471 Grant

Oct. 23, 2019 (St. Louis) – Legal Services of Eastern Missouri announced that it received a 3-year grant totaling $671,471 from the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services (HHS) for outreach and enrollment support to assist with educating, identifying and enrolling Missouri uninsured and underinsured children who are eligible for Medicaid and Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP).

The primary focus of the grant is to work with underinsured, uninsured and homeless children in school districts within the St. Louis region, and children living in immigrant families throughout Eastern Missouri with low participation rates in Medicaid and CHIP.

Legal Services is the only organization in Missouri to receive this grant, which went into effect July 1, 2019.

“We are honored to be the recipient of such a significant HHS grant. This will give us the necessary funding to provide legal assistance and outreach to educate families with underinsured and uninsured children about their health coverage options and to help them enroll in Medicaid and CHIP,” said Dan Glazier, Legal Services’ Executive Director and General Counsel.

“Access to healthcare for our youngest residents is a necessary investment in the future vitality and growth of Missouri’s population,” added Glazier.

Nationwide about 828,000 fewer children nationwide were enrolled in Medicaid and CHIP at the end of 2018 from the prior year, according to a 2019 report from the Georgetown University Center for Children and Families*.

The same report also noted that the enrollment declines in 2018 were most concentrated in seven states, including Missouri. More recent data show that over 100,000 children have lost Medicaid coverage since January 2018 and its percentage decline is now the highest in the nation. With this grant, Legal Services will be able to help more families navigate the enrollment and renewal process and help combat the coverage decline.

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About Legal Services of Eastern Missouri: Legal Services of Eastern Missouri has provided free civil legal help for low-income families for 62 years. In 2018 nearly 30,000 people in

21 counties of eastern Missouri received services from four regional offices. For more information, please visit www.lsem.org.

HHS Disclaimer

The project described was supported by Funding Opportunity # CMS1Y1CMS331691 from the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services, Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services. The contents provided are solely the responsibility of the authors and do not necessarily represent the official views of HHS or any of its agencies

* Georgetown University Center for Children and Families study about Medicaid and CHIP enrollment is at: www.shorturl.at/irsV7.