The Greater New York Hospital Foundation (GNYHF) has received a $97,550 grant from the W. K. Kellogg Foundation to pilot-test the Health Information Tool for Empowerment (HITE), a Web-based initiative designed to increase access to health care for uninsured New Yorkers.

Most of NYS's 3 million uninsured individuals fail to enroll in the State's publicly funded health insurance programs because they are unaware of the programs or are put off by the complexity of the application process. HITE will address those problems by providing frontline organizations that work with the uninsured—social service agencies, hospitals, clinics, faith-based groups, homeless shelters, and community-based organizations—with an easily accessible, locally tailored portal to information and resources for the uninsured. Its features include a comprehensive, searchable database of health-related resources for uninsured New Yorkers and a software program that will pre-screen individuals' eligibility for public health insurance programs. Other components, including a discussion board, calendar of local events, and document library, will be added in later phases of the project.

GNYHF's three partners on this project—the Greater Southern Brooklyn Health Coalition, the Mothers and Babies Perinatal Network of South Central New York, and the Northern Manhattan Community Voices Collaborative—are collaborating on all phases of project development, and will pilot-test the tool before it is launched statewide in 2004.

"HITE will ease the burden on countless health and social service organizations that are overwhelmed by and under-equipped to deal with the rising numbers of uninsured individuals who need essential health care services," said Rima Cohen, Director of GNYHF's Insurance Options for the Uninsured (IOU) and HITE Project Director.

HITE is also supported by The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and Verizon Foundation. For more information, contact Rima Cohen or Ami Desai at GNYHA.