November 5, 2015

OHCA Contacts: Jo Kilgore - (405) 522-7474,  Jennie Melendez- (405) 522-7404   

Oklahoma's SoonerCare program wins national Text4baby contest

Results from the 2015 Annual Text4baby State Enrollment Contest are in, and Oklahoma led the nation for medium-sized states in getting critical free health and safety information to new mothers.

The annual contest is a competition between states to encourage new mothers to subscribe to Text4baby, the nation’s largest and only free mobile health service promoting maternal and child health for pregnant women and mothers with infants under age 1 through text messaging. More than 58,600 moms across the country enrolled in the service during the contest period. Oklahoma enrolled 4,961 expectant and new mothers.

“In calendar year 2014, the Oklahoma Health Care Authority covered about 60 percent of all births in the state. We are in a position to make a difference in the health outcomes for expectant moms and newborns in Oklahoma," said OHCA CEO Nico Gomez. "Leveraging technology such as the Text4baby initiative allows us to more effectively communicate with our members and ensure they are connected to local resources to support their health.”

Throughout the contest, Text4baby outreach partners implemented creative strategies for sharing information about the service with women in their communities. Oklahoma made its impact through media efforts, social media and by implementing an automatic notification process via text message for SoonerCare (Oklahoma Medicaid) members to easily opt-in to receive Text4baby messages.

Contest winners were announced Tuesday at the American Public Health Association Annual Meeting in Chicago.

Text4baby is jointly operated by ZERO TO THREE and Voxiva, Inc. Pregnant women and new mothers can text "BABY" (or “BEBE” for Spanish) to 511411, and receive weekly text messages, timed to their due date or their baby's birth date through the baby’s first year.

The Oklahoma Health Care Authority (OHCA) administers two key health programs for the state. The first is SoonerCare, Oklahoma’s Medicaid program. SoonerCare works to improve the health outcomes of Oklahomans by ensuring that medically necessary benefits and services are responsive to the health care needs of our members. Qualifying Oklahomans include certain low-income children, seniors, the disabled, those being treated for breast or cervical cancer and those seeking family planning services. The second program OHCA operates is Insure Oklahoma, which assists qualifying adults and small business employees in obtaining health care coverage for themselves and their families. OHCA strives to educate and engage our current 827,118 members regarding personal responsibilities for their health services utilization, behaviors, and outcomes in partnership with a state-wide network of 44,288 providers. For more information, visit www.okhca.org or www.insureoklahoma.org.