Health Initiatives RFP: Uninsured Outreach Partners in Central and Western New York
CSS Reaching the 5% RFP Award Announcement
The Community Service Society of New York is pleased to announce that the following organizations have been selected as awardees for the Reaching the 5% uninsured outreach grant through our recent Request for Proposals: (1) ACR Health; (2) Health Community Alliance, Inc.; (3) Human Services Coalition Tompkins County; (4) Lake Plains Community Care Network; (5) Public Policy and Education Fund of New York, Inc; (6) Southern Tier Health Care System; and (7) Western New York Independent Living. Awards are subject to final approval and discretion of CSS and its funders. Thank you to all who applied for your interest and participation in the process.
The Community Service Society (CSS) is excited to announce a unique funding opportunity for outreach and marketing of enrollment services to uninsured consumers in Central and Western New York. Navigator and Facilitated Enroller agencies serving these regions are highly encouraged to apply. Applications are due by February 26, 2021.
Got questions about the RFP? View our Q&A below.
Q: Is the award amount $40,000 per county, or $40,000 regardless of the number of counties?
A: The award amount will depend on what you propose in your application and other proposals we receive. Covering more than one county will likely help your application. We will have a better idea of specific award amounts once all submitted applications are reviewed.
Q: Can we propose hiring an outside firm or agency to conduct outreach as part of this program?
A: We will consider any proposals that address the stated goals of this program.
Q: If we applied for just one county, would we still need to conduct outreach to 10-20k individuals per year?
A: The goal of the program is to reach as many people as possible. That said, we will review all proposals and might consider a smaller outreach target if the targeted area was smaller. Funding may also be consequentially less.
Q: Would it be ok for our existing navigators to do this outreach work or is there an understanding that non navigator staff do the work?
A: There is no expectation that only navigator staff would have to conduct the outreach.
Q: Can we do outreach in part outside of counties that we cover for our state-funded navigator program?
A: Since the New York State of Health (NYSOH) is allowing agencies to provide enrollment services to consumers who live in counties outside of their contracted service area during the public health emergency, we will consider proposals that include outreach outside of an applicant’s navigator service area. However, applicants should consider that once the public health emergency has ended, NYSOH may no longer allow agencies to count enrollments outside of their contracted counties as deliverables. CSS will not fund applicants for counties outside of their navigator program service area without a detailed plan for how they will track resulting enrollments from outreach in those counties. Outreach must focus on the 16 target counties for this grant.
Q: Can we include, as part of our outreach efforts to 10,000+ individuals per year, emails to our listserv and more limited things like doing announcements at programs and short pitches covering other issues (education, mass incarceration, routine chapter meetings etc.)?
A: We will consider proposals that include different types of outreach. In general, outreach that is designed to actively engage potential enrollees would be preferable. The goal is to reach as many people as possible and to use outreach to connect uninsured residents with enrollment services.
Please note that we would like to see how many enrollments result from the funded outreach efforts.
Q: Do the Executive Director AND President of the Board of Directors need to sign the cover form?
A: We will accept signatures from either the Executive Director or the Board of Directors.
Q: Is an electronic signature acceptable for the cover form?
A: Yes, we will accept electronic signatures.
Q: Who needs to sign the anti-discrimination attestation form?
A: The agency’s Executive Director should sign the anti-discrimination attestation form.
Q: Can you give any specifics on information that should be included in the Letter of Commitment?
A: The Letter of Commitment should include a statement reflecting the applicant’s commitment to reaching the goals of this program as well as their readiness to begin working at the start of the contract.
Q: Is the budget for 10 months or 11 months?
A: Please include a budget for an 11-month grant period.
Q: It is our understanding that state regulations preclude us as a navigator program from devoting navigator staff time to projects other than provided in our navigator contract. Therefore, can we put in our proposal that we will allocate some navigator time to this grant, consistent with our navigator contract?
A: If you would like to have navigator staff conduct outreach using this funding, you will need to submit a budget modification request to DOH (lead agencies) or your lead navigator agency to move some of their time to this grant.
Funding for this grant is intended for outreach purposes only. Enrollments that were the result of outreach through this grant will be conducted as part of the navigator program. Any navigator FTE allocation on your navigator program budget must be used for enrollments and is separate from this grant. However, you may allocate any remaining FTE for navigator staff to this grant (i.e. If Navigator X has 75% FTE on the navigator program budget, you may allocate any of their remaining 25% FTE to this grant). Please keep in mind that any reduction of 10% or more in total navigator FTE is typically disallowed.
Q: We have been informed that CSS will examine whether grantees' activities led to enrollments. How do you envision us documenting this? What kind of information will you ask of us?
A: We are open to different approaches from applicants as to how they will document enrollments that were the result of outreach for this grant. In general, we will want to know the number of those enrollments by county and, when possible, outreach referral type (i.e. online meetings/presentations, social media, flyer distribution, etc.). Examples of how this information can be captured include, but are not limited to, a referral source intake question for all enrollment clients, client surveys, tracking inquiries from online forums that were referred for enrollments, emails or calls from outreach event attendees, etc.
Q: Please clarify what 10,000 plus "contacts" means. Is it a contact, for example, to send a tweet or text to a person? Do we have to get a specific response from the recipient (such as a response to our text, taking an action in regard to an email, or signing a form indicating interest in health coverage) to constitute a "contact," or is it simply the number of individuals we send solicitations or other information to or speak to directly?
A: Examples of contacts can include, but are not limited to, the number of individuals sent outreach materials via postal and electronic mail, texts and phone calls, the number of attendees for online or in person presentations/forums/events, the number of engagements for social media posts and videos (likes, views, comments, shares, etc.), the number of website clicks that were directed from online outreach posts, the number of people who shared their contact information for follow up at online or in-person events, etc. We encourage applicants to include various forms of outreach to connect with as many individuals as possible through this grant.