San Bernardino, CA, April 13, 1999 -- For the second year in a row, the State of California has chosen Inland Empire Health Plan (IEHP) to be the Community Provider Plan (CPP) in Riverside and San Bernardino counties for Healthy Families, the federally funded health insurance program for low-income children.

As the Community Provider Plan, the state allows IEHP to give its Healthy Families subscribers a significant per-child monthly discount from the monthly premium the eight other authorized plans must charge for the exact same health care coverage.

"The state selects the plan with the most ‘safety net’ doctors, clinics, and hospitals that historically have cared for the poor to be the Community Provider Plan," explained Richard Bruno, IEHP’s CEO. "To encourage continued community support for these health care providers, the state allows IEHP to significantly discount our monthly premiums as a financial incentive to potential subscribers. In real dollars, it means parents would pay 50% to 75% more per month to one of the other eight commercial plans than they would to IEHP for the exact same Healthy Families coverage and benefits," stated Bruno.

Healthy Families provides comprehensive health, vision, and dental insurance to California children, ages 1 -18 years, in families that earn too much to qualify for Medi-Cal, but not enough to afford health insurance on their own.

Families with income between 100 percent and 200 percent of the federal poverty level (presently $16,450 and $32,900, respectively, for a family of four) are eligible to enroll their children in Healthy Families for a modest monthly premium.

Monthly Healthy Families premiums for families with income up to 150 percent of the federal poverty level will range from $4 per child up to $8 maximum for two or more children enrolled with IEHP.

As many as 90,000 children in Riverside and San Bernardino counties may be eligible for the Healthy Families Program.

As of April 5, some 9,757 Inland Empire children were enrolled in Healthy Families with 94,844 children enrolled statewide.

"IEHP is honored to be selected for the second year in a row to be the Healthy Families Community Provider Plan for the Inland Empire," said Richard Bruno, IEHP’s CEO. "IEHP will work very hard in 1999 to get the word out to parents, grandparents, step-parents to take advantage of this wonderful, low-cost, comprehensive health, vision, and dental program for their kids."

For information about Healthy Families, IEHP invites calls to their bilingual customer service representatives at 800-440-4347.

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