Assuring Health Access and Culturally Competent Health Services Through the Latino Health for All Coalition.

Although the importance of health care access is widely acknowledged, less is known about how partnerships can help assure access to quality health services for those experiencing health inequities. This report describes implementation of collaborative efforts through the Health Access Committee of the Latino Health for All Coalition (Wyandotte County/Kansas City, Kansas) to address its three goal areas (1) improving cultural competence through organizational change, (2) improving access to quality health services through access to diabetes prevention services, and (3) improving access and linkage to care via enrollment in health insurance. Using community-based participatory approaches, we documented and reflected on the pattern of activities facilitated by the coalition and its partners for each goal area over a 1-year period. This case report outlines strategies, activities, and lessons learned by coalition partners. This article offers practical guidance about how to structure and implement a coalition that provides technical support for increasing health care access and cultural competency.

Participatory evaluation of a community mobilization effort to enroll Wyandotte County, Kansas, residents through the Affordable Care Act.

Successful implementation of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) depends on the capacity of local communities to mobilize for action. Yet the literature offers few systematic investigations of what communities are doing to ensure support for enrollment. In this empirical case study, we report implementation and outcomes of Enroll Wyandotte, a community mobilization effort to facilitate enrollment through the ACA in Wyandotte County, Kansas. We describe mobilization activities during the first round of open enrollment in coverage under the ACA (October 1, 2013-March 31, 2014), including the unfolding of community and organizational changes (e.g., new enrollment sites) and services provided to assist enrollment over time. The findings show an association between implementation measures and newly created accounts under the ACA (the primary outcome).