As we celebrate our 25th year of service to the community, Brooklyn Perinatal Network (BPN) is proud to announce that as of October 1, we officially began our new work on this program. As a lead agency, receiving the maximum borough level funding to serve Brooklynites, it has been an exciting month initiating enrollment for families. We are one of 50+ New York State grant awardees now serving as “In-Person Assistors (IPA)/Navigators” for the New York State of Health – “The Official Health Plan Marketplace”.
For more than a decade, we have been providing facilitated health insurance enrollment services – the Medicaid, Child Health Plus and Family Health Plus” programs. Since 1999, BPN has enrolled over 100,000 persons- children, individuals and families – into public health insurance, through the NY State funded Facilitated Enrollment Program. This new endeavor, the In-Person Assistors/ Navigators (IPA) program allows for agencies such as ours to continue serving the individuals and families of Brooklyn while also providing health insurance assistance to local small businesses. BPN and its funded partners: Brooklyn (Kings County) Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, Community Service Center of Greater Williamsburg and Ft. Greene Strategic Neighborhood Action Project (SNAP) are excited about this new statewide venture and particularly about serving Brooklyn individuals and the local small business community with the goal of facilitating access to obtaining health insurance coverage and thus health care .
“New York has been waiting for this program and it will benefit so many more New Yorkers who would have gone without healthcare insurance coverage. We’re excited to implement this new program,” BPN Executive Director Ngozi Moses said..
The role of Navigators is to provide consumer education, outreach and support. We will answer clients questions and guide them through the new enrollment process by accepting and Submitting their applications; as well, as work with small business owners to enroll their employees and employees’ family members.
For BPN, this landmark award is vital to the communities we serve and could potentially provide five years’ worth of funding to support health insurance enrollment for our residents. “For this reason, BPN and its partners have been actively preparing for open enrollment” for the past several months, by transitioning our operational capacity and collecting information that will empower our Navigators to successfully and seamlessly serve the public,” said BPN Deputy Executive Director Denise West, the overseer of the program.
“Our success as Navigators is directly linked to the health and prosperity of our borough and we take that responsibility very seriously.” says Michael Hutchinson, the Quality Assurance Enrollment Coordinator “
Monica Dennie, an IPA with enrollment responsibilities adds: “We feel privileged to be able to support the mission of the New York State of Health – “The Official Health Plan Marketplace” and look forward to a long and productive collaboration.”
To learn more contact Ms West at (718) 643-8258, ext. 13 or ext. 21, or by email:dwest@bpnetwork.org
Brooklyn Perinatal Network was established in 1988 from a community task force to address high infant mortality, which had become a crisis in several New York City communities. Later a federal pilot program was developed under BPN leadership which later served as model for the entire nation, in dealing with a nationwide infant mortality crisis.
For 25 years, BPN has expanded its reach in the underserved New York City communities through engagements in various other initiatives and collaborations, and was recently named “lead borough agency” for the In-Person/Navigator Program, the new health insurance enrollment facilitation program.
BPN also connects clients to health and social services through our case management and referral program.
— Isiah Lyte
Communications
Associate
Brooklyn Perinatal
Network
