PA Demographics and Insurance Marketplace Information for Staff and Patrons

From the Office of Commonwealth Libraries, Compendium / August 17, 2013

Health Insurance Marketplace

This year the State Library of Pennsylvania is setting some priorities and putting focus on topics that are important at the federal, state, and local level. One of those areas is health. With the beginning of the Affordable Care Act (ACT) and the Health Insurance Marketplace, we want to make sure you have all of the information you need to support your communities. We are also going to continue to find general health resources and training to support you and the people you serve.

The information we send will be organized in Health Issues to help you keep track of what we send out.  Health Issues will be sent out via the Compendium, WebJunction and listservs.

We hope this will be useful, and want to hear from you about what works and what we need to tweak to make better.  Enjoy Health Issue 1!

HEALTH ISSUE 1: PA Demographics and Insurance Marketplace Information for Staff and Patrons

Pennsylvania Demographics for the Uninsured

As we get ready to support the people who need help finding information about the Affordable Care Act (ACA) and the Insurance Marketplace, we thought it might be useful to know how many uninsured people are in Pennsylvania. According to CMS, there are a total of 1,242,350 uninsured people.

This link provides the number of uninsured totals by county. The totals are by Public-Use Microdata Area (PUMA), which is an area within the state that contains at least 100,000 residents.  In sparsely populated areas, PUMAs are comprised of one or more neighboring counties to total 100,000.  Allegheny County represents about ten PUMAs within the county. We hope this data will help you understand how many people in your regional may be seeking assistance with finding information.

Health Insurance Marketplace - Affordable Care Act

The State Library of Pennsylvania is partnering with Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), PaLA PA Forward and the National Library of Medicine (NLM) to support libraries and the uninsured residents of Pennsylvania with information on the Affordable Care Act (ACA) and the Health Insurance Marketplace. There is information available now that will be helpful to you and the people you serve.

Training and Materials for Staff

There is a great deal of information on this site for the libraries to use such as training materials, publications and articles about the Marketplace.     

Online Information for Your Patrons Now

There are two links that you should consider making more accessible by adding links to your website now. The sites below are designed to help people understand the Insurance Marketplace and the choices available to them. 

• General Information about the Insurance Marketplace
  Marketplace and Health Insurance consumer site with general information and a place for people to sign up for email updates.  
• Consumer Accounts - Patrons Can Create Now
  The federal government is encouraging consumers to visit the Insurance Marketplace and create an account now, so that when it opens on October 1st for enrollment, people will already be signed up. 

National Council of Nonprofits Affordable Care Art Resources

Affordable Care Act Resources from the National Council of Nonprofits:

• Affordable Care Act
• Affordable Care Act FAQs
• Small Employer Health Care Tax Credit

NN/LM MAR Authoritative Information about the Affordable Care Art

The National Network of Libraries of Medicine Middle Atlantic Region has created a website to highlight authoritative information about the Affordable Care Act.  They are updating this website on a regular basis.  Their goal is to help with outreach efforts to inform consumers as they make important decisions about their health insurance options: http://nnlm.gov/mar/consumer/aca.html.

As we receive other resources related to the Affordable Care Act and the PA Health Insurance Marketplaces, we will post them on the Adult Services online workspace.

Finding Health and Wellness @ the Library: A Consumer Health Toolkit for Library Staff

From the National Network of Libraries of Medicine Middle Atlantic Region

The 2nd edition of the Finding Health and Wellness @ the Library: A Consumer Health Toolkit for Library Staff is now published!!  The electronic version is hosted on the California State Library website at the same URL as before: www.library.ca.gov/lds/docs/healthtoolkit.pdf. Kelli Hamm of NN/LM PSR is the primary author and editor of the site and she has added a lot of new content and much more emphasis on MedlinePlus this time around.

We are pleased to announce the publication of the newly revised edition of the Finding Health and Wellness @ the Library: A Consumer Health Toolkit for Library Staff!  Completely updated and edited by Kelli Ham, this new edition includes new resources, updated links, and new content throughout the publication. Public library staff, consumer health librarians, and others who provide health information services to the public will find this toolkit to be a vital resource.

Since its publication in 2010, the Toolkit has enjoyed heavy usage nationwide and is regarded as an essential guide for librarians and staff to build and improve core competencies in consumer health. It is used as the course textbook for the NN/LM  online class titled, “Finding Health and Wellness @ the Library: The Essentials of Providing Consumer Health Services,” and it is also used as the textbook for library school courses.

What’s in the 2nd edition?

• 65 new resources
• 145 updated annotations and/or URLs
• 74 obsolete entries removed
• Updated acronyms list with links to organizations
• New emphasis on MedlinePlus content
• New content types (health check tools and mobile apps and sites)
• Enhancements to the Evaluation page, including understanding the HONcode

NN/LM PSR collaborated with UC Davis Health System on several aspects of the Broadband Technology Opportunities Program grant, and the printing and distribution of this second edition to California public libraries has been made possible by funding from the grant. We are also grateful for the continued support from the California State Library, which hosts the publication on its website.

The Toolkit is available at http://www.library.ca.gov/lds/docs/healthtoolkit.pdf.

The National Network of Libraries of Medicine, Southeastern/Atlantic Region: Release of New Health Ministry LibGuide

By Nancy Patterson, Community Outreach Coordinator, NN/LM, SE/A Region

As the Community Outreach Coordinator, I have taken my experience working with health ministries in the region into account and created a Health Ministry Guide. The guide is complete with ready-to-use outreach models, training and evaluation materials, links to reliable health information resources, sources for “Free Stuff,” statistics and funding, and much, much more. The guide is useful for health ministries that are just being formed as well as for health ministries that have been in operation for years. Any faith-based organization or community group can easily adapt and utilize the information in the guide, and information within it will be useful to outreach librarians as well.

URL: http://guides.nnlm.gov/ministry

 

I have created customizable Power Point presentations that any health ministry or community group can adapt to use as they wish. There are four Power Points designed for use covering topics from planning and implementation to evaluation:

A: Healthy Ministry: Health Information for All – a Power Point to guide you through your first planning meeting. Gather a core group together and begin!

B: Health Disparities & Health Literacy – A Power Point that illustrates the health disparities crisis in the US and how increasing health literacy is part of the solution.

C: Health Information: Be Equipped – A Power Point that provides a basic introduction to getting clear and reliable health information online and from your doctor.

D: Reliable Health Information from NLM – A Power Point introduction to MedlinePlus, NIHSeniorHealth, Clinical Trials, Genetics Home Reference & AIDSInfo.

Also included are an ‘Introduction Sheet’ that explains the templates, exercises to print out and use for hands-on class activities in conjunction with Power Point D, and ‘Question and Answers’ to hand out so class participants can remember how to find information long after the class is over.

These presentations are intended for groups to customize as they wish; add them together, use them separately, remove unwanted slides, revise existing slides, create new slides, etc. They are designed to assist in reaching your health outreach goals, and I encourage you to make them your own.

Being a new resource, I am interested in all input about how to improve the guide as it evolves. I am still populating it, and will continue to add and change information as necessary to keep it current. Please don’t hesitate to send any comments or suggestions to Nancy at:npatters@hshsl.umaryland.edu. 

Here’s to your community’s health!

Affordable Care Act WebJunction Webinar for Public Libraries

From the National Network of Libraries of Medicine, Middle Atlantic Region

For those interested in information on the Affordable Care Act, please see below:

WebJunction will host a webinar on Wednesday, August 28 at 10 AM Pacific/1 PM Eastern regarding libraries and the Affordable Care Act (ACA). Please join us for this interactive session, where we will discuss strategies for libraries to identify ACA resources, hear from libraries that are working to prepare for patron requests, and obtain key policy and resource updates from ACA experts.

For more information and to register, please visit: http://www.webjunction.org/events/webjunction/Libraries_and_ACA_Resources.html.