Mobile Technology: Smart Tools to Increase Participation in Health Coverage

Mobile technology –cell phones, smartphones, and other portable devices that provide access to the Internet—is rapidly expanding to a growing number of users and purposes, offering a new set of tools that can be tapped to facilitate increased participation in health coverage. Both immediately and as health coverage is expanded under the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA), the task of moving tens of millions of uninsured Americans into coverage will require improved, flexible entry points. Indeed, the ACA calls for the development of consumer-friendly enrollment systems that allow individuals to apply for health coverage and subsidies, and to recertify and manage their eligibility –all online—by   2014. As cell phones, smartphones and other mobile broadband technologies are becoming more usable, affordable, and prevalent, their potential to function as outreach tools and as new means of applying for services, submitting forms, finding information, and interacting with the government can be harnessed to promote robust participation and stability in health coverage.  
 
To download the full issue brief click here.