Make every purchase have a purpose.

Whe n Haile e neede d critical care, th e El Pas o Children’s H ospital wa s the re fo r he r Now yo u can help provide ho pe to familie s in nee d wit h th e El Pas o Children’s H ospital Spirit Debit Card from Raiz.

Ever y qualif ying purchase* yo u make will tu rn everyday transactions into donations that help support life-saving treat me nts at our local Children’s Miracl e Networ k hospital. It’s an easy way to make a positive impact an d chang e lives.

Get your E l Paso Chil dr en’s Hospita l S pi rit De b it Car d tod ay an d help provid e essential care t o th e m os t vulne rable childre n in o ur community.

*Purchases must be non-pin transactions to qualify. A Raiz checking account is required to order an El Paso Children’s Hospital Spirit Debit Card. A one-time $5.00 fee will be incurred when ordering. Fe de rally insure d by NCUA.

| By: ERIN COULEHAN |

El Paso Health is a Texas-licensed health maintenance organization established by the El Paso County Hospital District that works to improve the local health care landscape. El Paso Health’s mission statement is, “To build relationships with our Members, Providers, and Partners that strengthen the delivery of healthcare in our community and promotes access to quality healthcare for children, families, and individuals.

“We are the only health plan in El Paso that does everything in El Paso,” says Carol Smallwood, El Paso Health President and CEO. “We employ more than 170 El Pasoans, who work from our office centrally located in El Paso. When you have a group of people that are all under the same roof, there’s a comfort that comes from working together and knowing we can get the job done. We’re able to do our work because of the team and how well we all work together.”

Smallwood adds that El Paso Health has been embedded in the community for more than 20 years and continues to evolve while working to optimize health care access and opportunity for El Pasoans.

The 2021 U.S. Census reports that Texas is the state with both the largest number and percentage of uninsured residents in the country. Texans make up 9 percent of the U.S. population and 19 percent of the country’s uninsured population. Additional statistics reported by the Census reveal that a large percentage of uninsured Texas are Hispanic, highlighting that 34 percent of Hispanic working-aged adults and 16 percent of Hispanic children are uninsured, compared to 11 percent in adults and 8 percent in children for their non-Hispanic white counterparts.

El Paso Health is working to close the gaps in health insurance coverage for these populations by offering both Medicare and Medicaid programs.

“We are a Medicare Dual Special Needs plan (D-SNP),” says Smallwood. “A lot of people don’t know that we offer Medicare as well.”

Medicaid coverage in Texas has become more complicated following legislation passed by the Texas Legislature during the most recent session. El Paso Health is working to implement the necessary changes.

Janel Lujan, CEO of El Paso Health Medicaid Service Lines, has been with the organization for 16 years and works alongside Smallwood and their team to ensure access to health insurance coverage.

“A lot of the work we do is tailored for El Paso, and probably won’t work in Dallas, Houston, or San Antonio but we know they work here,” says Lujan. “That’s how we design everything: it’s about our members and our providers. We’ve been part of the El Paso community for those 22 years and design amazing programs for our members and the diverse network of providers that we have covered under our plan.”

An example is the El Paso Health Car Seat Safety program that started in 2017 in collaboration with the UMC Foundation.

Participants are taught how to evaluate whether a child’s car seat is secure and properly fits by Child Passenger Safety Technicians with their kids present. If the technicians determine a participant’s car seat fails to meet safety guidelines, or doesn’t correspond to the child’s weight and height, then the car seat is replaced with a new one – free of charge.

“They have their children with them, so they get fitted for the right car seat. Parents or caregivers are then taught how to install those car seats in their vehicles,” says Lujan. “What’s great about that is that there are certified car seat technicians that go stepby-step with parents and caregivers to show them the right fit for their vehicle.”

During the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic, El Paso Health provided coverage for more than 107,000 members, providing answers and protecting lives of vulnerable community members amid a time of crisis and uncertainty for many.

“We get a lot of comments from members, a lot of ‘Thank you for what you’ve done for me. I appreciate you so much,’” says Smallwood. “That’s what keeps me going. Because at the end of the day, helping people who need that help, that’s what drives me. I’ve had positions before where you don’t have that, this is so much more than a job. We are actually helping people, and people reach out to say, ‘thank you.’ That is extremely fulfilling.”