Staff Reports
Florida KidCare is urging members to call the agency immediately if families’ household incomes change or have recently changed as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic or if families have lost employer-provided health care.
The agency provides income-based health care for qualifying families and may be able to offer reduced cost or free health coverage to families experiencing hardship.
The Florida Healthy Kids Corporation, responsible for Florida KidCare’s administrative services has adopted benefit and eligibility adjustments to help ensure children remain covered during the global health emergency.
If a parent or guardian, or both, lose a job or experience a drop in income, Florida KidCare may be able to tap one of four programs to provide a lower health care premium or free coverage.
Those programs include Medicaid for children 0-18 years, MediKids for children 1-4 years, Florida Healthy Kids for children 5-18 years and Children’s Medical Services for children from birth to 18 with special health care needs.
Participants can call 1-888-540-5437 to report a change in income or to seek help. The call center is open Monday through Friday from 7:30 a.m. until 7:30 p.m. Current members should have their Family Account Number on hand for the call.
The Florida Healthy Kids programs has waived all costs associated with COVID-19 testing for families in the program. They’ve also waived copays for most common services through April 30 and implemented retroactive enrollment for new applicants to ensure backdated coverage. Families will also have additional time to complete their annual renewals for the program and to pay premiums that are due.
Families without health coverage that would like to apply for one of the four programs by calling the organization’s call center.
While free programs might not be available to all families in need, other programs offer significantly reduced cost plans for as low as $15 or $20 a month.
