NORTH BAY -- Redwood Community Health Coalition had the second-highest level of enrollment in the state for Medi-Cal coverage and health plans offered through Covered California, the state's online health exchange established under the Affordable Care Act.
The Petaluma-based consortium of nonprofit health centers, with 90 enrollment counselors, signed up more than 4,400 individuals into health plans offered through Covered California across its service area, which includes Marin, Sonoma, Napa and Yolo counties. That amounts to 4.06 percent of the total of individuals enrolled across the state, according to Covered California, which released the figures recently.
The Redwood Coalition also signed up nearly 6,700 individuals for Medi-Cal coverage, so the coalition was responsible for nearly 11,100 enrolled households.
Across Covered California's region 2 -- Marin, Sonoma, Napa and Solano counties -- a total of 52,081 individuals were enrolled in health plans, according to Covered California.
Statewide, Covered California signed up more than 1.4 million people into health plans, many of whom qualify for subsidies to help pay for premiums.
The only organization with a higher enrollment total than Redwood was Altamed Health Services Corp., a network of health centers in the Los Angeles area and the largest group of federally qualified health centers (FQHCs) in the U.S. With the help of 135 counselors, Atlamed enrolled nearly 4,700 in health plans, or 4.27 percent of the state's total, and another approximately 6,300 into Medi-Cal.
Redwood Community Health Coalition includes FQHCs across the North Bay, among them Marin Community Clinics, Petaluma Health Center, Santa Rosa Community Health Centers and Clinic Ole in Napa.
In 2012, well before Covered California began enrolling individuals into health plans, Redwood took part in a pilot program that tested the effectiveness of a mobile application used for enrollment purposes. The app, called One-e-App, was used to enroll patients into a number of state-run health services, such as the Women, Infant and Children program and CalFresh. The coalition at the time also said such an application could assist in enrolling individuals into exchange health plans.
Peter Lee, executive director for Covered California, is expected to recognize Redwood Community Health Coalition in the near future for its enrollment success.
