ED Medicaid Support

Maintaining Continuous Medicaid Coverage for Eligible Children in New Jersey

The study introduces a bedside intervention assisting families with the enrollment or re-enrollment process through patient direct contact with NJFamily Care and financial departments, using an emergency department (ED)-based navigator tool. The primary objective is to identify the barriers contributing to the lack of insurance coverage through NJ Family Care coverage using a brief survey with the parents of children who are treated in the ED and identified as uninsured, and to study the effect of a bedside intervention designed to assist families with the enrollment or re-enrollment process.

Study Overview

• Status: Not yet recruiting
• Conditions: Emergencies; Pediatric Uninsured Emergency Visits
• Intervention / Treatment: Other: Navigation through financial systems and linkage to resources

• Study Type: Interventional
• Enrollment (Estimated): 180
• Phase: Not Applicable

Contacts and Locations

• Study Contact: Name: Daisy Negron, MBA, BSN, RN; Phone Number: 551-996-3206; Email: Daisy.Negron@hmhn.org

Participation Criteria

Eligibility Criteria

• Ages Eligible for Study: Adult; Older Adult
• Accepts Healthy Volunteers: Yes

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

• Parent/guardian/ legal authorized representative (age 18 years or older) with children aged: 1 month to 17 years of age who obtain care in the pediatric emergency department
• Child Uninsured (ie, Charity Care, HUMC Charity Care, Pending Medicaid, Self-Pay)
• Interested in applying or receiving assistance with NJfamilycare
• Not pending private insurance coverage
• Primary language of the parent or guardian is identified as English
• Pediatric patient lives in New Jersey

Exclusion Criteria:

• Parent/guardian/legal authorized representative with children aged: less than 1 month and greater than 17 years old Insured pediatric patient Parent/ Guardian/Legal Authorized Representative not present Parent/ Guardian/Legal Authorized Representative age 17 years or younger Primary language not identified as English Patients visiting the Emergency Department related to Motor Vehicle Accidents Already participated in this study

Study Plan

How is the study designed?

Design Details

• Primary Purpose: Health Services Research
• Allocation: N/A
• Interventional Model: Single Group Assignment
• Masking: None (Open Label)

Number of Arms

1

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm	Intervention / Treatment
Experimental: Bedside intervention and support; A bedside intervention assisting families with the enrollment or re-enrollment process through patient direct contact with NJFamily Care and local financial departments, using an ED-based navigator tool.	Other: Navigation through financial systems and linkage to resources; Navigation through financial systems and linkage to resources to connect families and ultimately help them gain access to insurance for the pediatric patient.

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Barriers to medicaid enrollment or reenrollment	Outcome of questionnaire regarding barriers expressed as percentage of participants who identified each barrier	Survey is completed upon enrollment
Rate of Successful Medicaid Enrollment or Re-enrollment Approval	The proportion of the enrolled participants who reported approval for Medicaid coverage. This outcome measures the ultimate success of the intervention of re-establishing health insurance.	Assessed via participant follow-up call or review of the electronic health record at 90 days post-intervention.

Secondary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Enrollment in Temporary Insurance Coverage	The proportion of participants who, after receiving additional assistance, were successfully enrolled in a temporary or bridge insurance plan, known as presumptive eligibility. This measures the intervention's success in providing a safety net for families during the Medicaid application waiting period.	Assessed via participant follow-up within 10 days (+/- 5 days) post-intervention and/or chart review.

Collaborators and Investigators

• Sponsor: Hackensack Meridian Health
• Collaborators: New Jersey Health Foundation
• Investigators: Principal Investigator: Karen Eigen, MD, MPH, Hackensack Meridian Health

Study record dates

Study Major Dates

• Study Start (Estimated): May 15, 2026
• Primary Completion (Estimated): May 15, 2028
• Study Completion (Estimated): May 15, 2028

Study Registration Dates

• First Submitted: May 11, 2026
• First Submitted That Met QC Criteria: May 11, 2026
• First Posted (Actual): May 19, 2026

Study Record Updates

• Last Update Posted (Actual): May 19, 2026
• Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria: May 11, 2026
• Last Verified: May 1, 2026

More Information

Terms related to this study

• Keywords: Medicaid; Pediatric uninsured emergency visits; lack of insurance; linkage to resources
• Additional Relevant MeSH Terms: Pathologic Processes; Disease Attributes; Pathological Conditions, Signs and Symptoms; Emergencies
• Other Study ID Numbers: Pro2026-0127

Plan for Individual participant data (IPD)

• Plan to Share Individual Participant Data (IPD)?: NO

Drug and device information, study documents

• Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated drug product: No
• Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated device product: No