Indiana Family to Family

By Emily McKinley, Health Information Specialist On January 1, 2014, the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA) will be fully implemented. At this time, all Americans must be enrolled in some form of health coverage program to avoid tax penalties. To facilitate purchase and enrollment in health coverage plans, including Medicaid, the Health Insurance Marketplace will open in October 2013. Family Voices encourages individuals to prepare for this transition by educating themselves about the Marketplace, insurance plans, and other relevant changes. To this end, we have shared monthly ACA updates ( www.fvindiana.blogspot.com , filter by topic Affordable Care Act) as well as time-sensitive alerts about the legislation. In this update, we would like to share how you can prepare for enrolling via the Health Insurance Marketplace. If you are not already familiar with insurance, this is a great time to review coverage terms and costs. We recommend perusing  www.healthcare

Family Voices Indiana Seeking Latino/Hispanic Family Leaders to serve as Health Information Specialists If you are a Latino parent of a child with a disability, and speak Spanish and English, Family Voices of Indiana wants and needs YOU! The Indiana’s Family to Family Health Information Center Project will: Address the health care financing information needs of Indiana’s families raising children with special health care needs and disabilities Connect families to existing resources, direct support and advocacy Support and expand the Family Leadership Network statewide Now accepting applications from bilingual Family Leaders to support this project as contractors working up to 40 hours a month from your community Requirements: • Bilingual required. Must speak Spanish and English •Must be the parent of a child with special health care needs •Knowledge of Family Leadership •Knowledge of services and systems in Indiana. We provide additional training an

Each month, Family Voices Indiana provides the families we serve with a summary of month’s hottest items. If you missed us on  Facebook , here is the latest! May Awareness: Brain Tumor Awareness. Learn more about brain tumors  here . Ehlers Danlos Syndrome Awareness Month. Learn more here:  http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/ehlersdanlossyndrome.html . Celiac Disease Awareness. Celiac disease is an autoimmune disorder triggered by the ingestion of gluten, a protein found in wheat, barley and rye. An estimated 1 in 141 Americans has celiac disease, yet 83% of those who have it are either undiagnosed or misdiagnosed. Find additional information and resources here:  http://www.celiaccentral.org/awarenessmonth/ . Cystic Fibrosis Awareness Month. 30,000 children and adults have CF in the United States. More than 10 million Americans are symptomless carriers of the defective CF gene. About 1,000 new cases of cystic fibrosis are diagnosed each year. Learn more here: