get_covered

Get Covered Ohio

Supporting a "Medicaid Unwinding" Integrated Communications Campaign

The Project

Get Covered Ohio is a collaborative effort to connect Ohioans to free information and assistance exploring their health insurance options. It is led by the Ohio Association of Foodbanks and includes eight local and regional organizations providing Navigator services.

In December 2022, Congress passed the Consolidated Appropriations Act (CAA). Per the CAA, the continuous coverage provision that prohibited states from disenrolling members from Medicaid during the public health emergency due to COVID-19 was set to expire on March 31, 2023, and, as a result, states would once again need to resume routine eligibility operations. Ohio resumed its normal operations on February 1, 2023. This could mean that those who were once eligible for Medicaid would no longer be and would lose their coverage on April 30, 2023.

As a result, families who were currently enrolled in Medicaid had not re-enrolled for a few years due to rules that were put in place during the pandemic. However, due to the federal regulation changes, thousands of Ohioans would now be at risk as these continuous coverage provisions ended.

Get Covered Ohio engaged Inspire to support a “Medicaid Unwinding” integrated campaign. It was important for Get Covered Ohio to reach families and individuals at risk of losing Medicaid coverage in a variety of ways.

A comprehensive campaign ran from May 1-August 31, 2023, including TV and radio spots, billboards, newspaper ads, digital ads, paid e-blasts, BMV ads, commuter ads and earned media outreach.

The objectives for this campaign included the following:

  • Educate Ohioans on Medicaid about the recent federal changes that routine eligibility operations were continuing and what steps they needed to take

  • Raise awareness of the free services provided by Get Covered Ohio to support families and individuals with navigating the complicated health insurance process

The Results

The integrated campaign was successful in driving traffic to the Get Covered Ohio website and raising awareness. The campaign resulted in the following:

  • TV and radio spots were shared with more than 180 stations across the state. The spots aired approximately 21,600 times by 274 stations from June 1-Aug. 15, 2023, with an estimated value of more than $519,000. This represents a return of more than $8 for each $1 invested in the campaign.

  • The 13 billboards received a total of 7.7 million impressions, which ran throughout the three-month campaign.

  • Ten print ads ran in ethnic newspapers reaching a diverse audience of 162,500.

  • Digital ads received more than 4.2 million total impressions and generated 999 clicks (0.17% click-through rate) to the GetCoveredOhio.org website.

  • The BMV ads ran in 182 total locations, delivering 49.2 million impressions.

  • The commuter audio ads reached 5.98 million impressions over the three-month campaign.

  • La Mega Media ran four social media posts per month, web banner ads and banner ads in their app in the Columbus, Cincinnati and Cleveland markets. The 36 total social posts generated 49,336 impressions with 196 clicks to the website (0.30% click-through rate).

  • Six Facebook posts and four Instagram posts ran on Ohio in Arabic’s channels reaching 20,800 users and receiving more than 3,497 engagements. A one-minute video was created and posted to Facebook and was viewed more than 3,000 times receiving an engagement rate of 16 percent.

  • Print ads in the Jargaran newspaper reached a total circulation of 4,000.

  • Three paid e-blasts ran through Sinclair Media and reached 454,545 total individuals with an average open rate of 17.2% and generating 12,289 total clicks to GetCoveredOhio.org.

  • Digital ads run through Sinclair Media received 760,005 impressions and generated 445 clicks.

  • A TV segment on WSYX’s Good Day Marketplace program ran on June 16.

During the campaign period, traffic to GetCoveredOhio.org increased by 77.8% with more than 19,000 unique visitors. The Get Covered Ohio team also shared that they received more scheduled appointments than previous months with several individuals citing they heard about their services through the advertising campaigns.

The integrated campaign exceeded the objectives of the campaign, raising awareness of Get Covered Ohio Navigator services and driving Ohioans to act so that they would not be left uninsured.