SUITLAND, Md. — At a SuperSuds Laundromat simply south of Washington, D.C., a gradual stream of shoppers loaded garments into washers and dryers on a latest Sunday morning, passing the time on their telephones or watching tv.
Amid the low hum of spinning garments, Adrienne Jones made the rounds in a shiny yellow sweatshirt, asking prospects about their well being wants. “Do you will have well being protection?” Jones, an outreach supervisor for Cloth Well being, requested Brendan Glover, 25, who was doing laundry along with his toddler in tow.
Glover works in regulation enforcement, however he misplaced his protection in 2024 when a job ended. “I’m younger, so I don’t give it some thought, however I do know I’ll want it,” he mentioned.
Jones collected his contact info, gave him a present card for a future laundromat go to, and promised to assist him discover inexpensive protection.
State Medicaid and Inexpensive Care Act protection applications have lengthy struggled to attach with lower-income People to assist them entry well being care. They ship letters and emails, place cellphone calls, and submit on social media platforms akin to Fb and X.
A few of these state applications try another method: assembly folks on the laundromat — the place they commonly go and often have time to talk.
Cloth Well being, a Washington, D.C.-based startup, sends outreach employees into laundromats in Maryland, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and — as of January — the District of Columbia, to assist folks get and use well being protection, together with by serving to schedule checkups or maternity care. The employees, a lot of whom are bilingual, go to the laundromats additionally to ascertain relationships, construct belief, and join folks with authorities help.
Medicaid well being plans together with these run by CareFirst BlueCross BlueShield in Maryland, UPMC in Pittsburgh, and Jefferson Well being in Philadelphia pay Cloth Well being to attach with their enrollees. The corporate was paid by the Maryland Managed Care Group Affiliation, the state’s Medicaid well being plan commerce group, to assist folks recertify their Medicaid eligibility after covid pandemic-era protection protections expired.
Since 2023, the corporate has linked with greater than 20,000 folks in Maryland and Pennsylvania alone, accumulating contact info and knowledge on their well being and social wants, mentioned Allister Chang, a co-founder and the chief working officer. Chang additionally serves on the D.C. State Board of Training as Ward 2’s elected consultant.
Cloth Well being wouldn’t disclose its charges to KFF Well being Information. The corporate is structured as a public profit company, that means it’s a for-profit enterprise created to offer a social profit and isn’t required to prioritize in search of income for shareholders.
Pennie, Pennsylvania’s ACA market, which opened in 2020, pays Cloth Well being to speak to folks within the Philadelphia and Pittsburgh areas about protection choices and enroll them.
A survey final yr discovered that two-thirds of uninsured folks within the state have by no means heard of Pennie, mentioned Devon Trolley, Pennie’s government director.
“Cloth’s method could be very novel and inventive,” she mentioned. “They go to the place individuals are sitting with time on their fingers and develop grassroots relationships and get the phrase out about Pennie.”
For enrollees, the laundromat chats may be simpler and faster than connecting with their well being plans’ customer support. For the well being plans, they will improve state efficiency funds, that are tied to enrollee satisfaction and effectiveness at getting them providers akin to most cancers screenings.
“Our pitch is: Folks spend two hours every week ready round in laundromats and that idle time may be extremely productive,” mentioned Courtney Bragg, a co-founder and the CEO of Cloth Well being.
CareFirst started working with the corporate final yr to assist folks in Maryland renew protection, schedule checkups, and join different advantages together with vitality help and meals stamps.
Sheila Yahyazadeh, chief exterior operations officer for the CareFirst plan, mentioned the initiative reveals the significance of human interplay. “There’s a false impression that expertise will resolve all, however a human face is completely basic to make this program profitable as a result of on the finish of the day folks need to speak to somebody and really feel seen and cared for,” she mentioned.
On a earlier go to to SuperSuds, Jones, the Cloth Well being outreach employee, met Patti Hayes, 59, of Hyattsville, Maryland, who’s enrolled within the Medicaid well being plan operated by CareFirst however had not seen a major care doctor in over a yr. She mentioned she most popular to see a Black doctor.
After they met on the laundromat, Jones helped her discover a new physician and schedule an appointment. She additionally helped her discover a therapist in her plan’s community.
“That is useful as a result of it’s extra of a private contact,” Hayes mentioned.
Cloth Well being additionally texts folks to remain in contact and inform them when the outreach employees will probably be again at their laundromat to allow them to meet once more in individual.
Paola Flores, 38, of Clinton, Maryland, instructed a Cloth Well being employee she wanted assist switching Medicaid plans so she might get higher take care of her autistic baby. Speaking along with her in Spanish, the employee mentioned she would assist her, together with by making an appointment with a pediatrician.
“Good assist is difficult to search out,” Flores mentioned.
Ryan Moran, Maryland’s Medicaid director, mentioned Cloth Well being helped maintain folks enrolled throughout the Medicaid “unwinding,” when everybody on this system needed to get renewed after the expiration of pandemic-era protection protections that lasted three years.
Outreach employees there centered on laundromats in cities that had excessive charges of individuals being disenrolled for paperwork causes.
“There isn’t any query in regards to the worth of human-to-human interplay and the power to be on the bottom the place individuals are, that removes obstacles and will get folks to interact with us,” Moran mentioned.
