Health-e-App was the first fully automated web-based application in the United States for enrolling children and pregnant women in low-income households in public health insurance programs. Developed by the California Health Care Foundation (CHCF), in partnership with the Managed Risk Medical Insurance Board and the California Department of Health Care Services, Health-e-App was created to demonstrate the impact that information technologies could have on improving access to, and the business processes of, government-sponsored health programs.

The application was developed in 2000, was pilot tested in San Diego County, and has been in use in California since. Subsequently, CHCF licensed Health-e-App to the state of California at no cost. Health-e-App has been used across California to enroll eligible applicants in the Healthy Families and Medi-Cal for Children programs.

In December 2010, Health-e-App was made available to the public as a self-service application (Health-e-App Public Access or HeA PA), allowing users to log in from any computer to complete the application on their own. Today more than 40% of all applications are submitted online through Health-e-App, and half of those come through the Public Access version.

Health-e-App and Health-e-App Public Access have directly influenced the vision of a “single, streamlined enrollment application” that is embodied in the Affordable Care Act, as well as many of the concrete requirements around enrollment.

In this video, Wendy Lazarus, founder and copresident of The Children’s Partnership, discusses the advantages of Health-e-App.

Health-e-App offers a more secure, speedy, and consumer-friendly way to apply for public health insurance than the traditional paper-based approach. It provides better quality and more complete application data and a more streamlined enrollment process, and it shows promise of increasing program enrollment because it is quick and easy to use. Social Interest Solutions supports the state and its vendors in the ongoing maintenance of the Health-e-App system.

Evaluation of Health-e-App Public Access

Health-e-App Public Access has been evaluated in a series of briefs published by Mathematica Policy Research. These evaluations found high levels of satisfaction among HeA PA users: 93% of users said they would recommend HeA PA to their family and friends. A related online outreach campaign increased traffic to the HeA PA application by 62%. The evaluations provide lessons for the implementation of self-service online enrollment in the health insurance exchanges.

Business Case Analysis of Health-e-App

A June 2001 report, Business Case Analysis of Health-e-App, was produced by The Lewin Group. The independent analysis outlines key benefits and gives Health-e-App high marks from program administrators, applicants, and certified application assistants (CAAs) who help families apply for coverage. The study found that real-time eligibility screening, online provider and plan selection, and confirmation of application receipt contributed to strong customer satisfaction with the streamlined application process. The full report and executive summary are available as Document Downloads.