In 2023, the Florida Covering Kids & Families (FL-CKF) Navigator Program, housed within the USF College of Public Health (COPH), will turn 10 years old.

This year the program employs some 200 Navigators, up from a low of 60 when funding was cut during the Trump Administration. Navigators not only help consumers—many of them in vulnerable, under-served populations—“navigate” health insurance enrollment using the Health Care Marketplace, but, according to FL-CKF Program Director Jodi Ray, they also help them navigate the entire health care system.

“Navigators are connecting enrollees to providers, helping them understand medical billing and giving them some health literacy,” Ray said. “Some people don’t know what to do once they get insurance. We tell them about things such as preventive care. Our job is so much bigger than enrollment work.”

And big jobs often come with big price tags.

This year FL-CKF was awarded $12.9 million by the U.S. Health and Human Service (HHS) Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, part of a record-breaking grant awarding FL-CKF roughly $36 million over three years. The funds will be used to hire more Navigators, as well as for advertising and outreach, Ray said.

“We’re doing digital campaigns, broadcast TV, radio ads and ads on streaming services,” Ray said. “But we’re also going to focus on rural areas where many of our vulnerable populations live and where mass communication ads may not be successful. This year, we’ll be putting people on the ground in those hard-to-reach places. Navigators will be visiting laundromats, barber shops, beauty salons, bodegas and other places in the community to try and reach people. We also have a partnership with Walgreens, and we’ll be setting up tables in some stores. We’ll be utilizing some new things this year that we haven’t in the past because we have the resources to do so.”

Ray notes that in 10 years, the Navigator Program has tripled in size. What would she like to see in the future? More integration with other public health services, she says.

“The Navigator Program can be replicated to so many other health and social services,” Ray commented. “For example, housing insecurity and health care disparities and food insecurity all go hand in hand. People may be living in places where there’s a food desert or transportation is a barrier. The Navigator Program can be a model for navigating these other systems and services as well.”

Open health care enrollment runs from Nov. 1, 2022, to Jan. 15, 2023. For more information, click here.

Story by Donna Campisano, USF College of Public Health