Impact Stories
Find out what expanded family planning coverage has meant to state leaders, providers, and patients.
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Impact Stories
Find out what expanded family planning coverage has meant to state leaders, providers, and patients.
Illinois Department of Healthcare and Family Services (HFS)
The Opportunity
In 2021, state leaders and health advocates became increasingly concerned about barriers to contraceptive care in Illinois.
500,000 people lacked coverage for contraceptive care
Only 1 in 5 women accessing care at Illinois community health centers received contraceptive counseling
Solution and Outcome
Develop a robust and inclusive family planning SPA:
Documented potential cost savings and served as a resource for state legislative champions.
Ensured that the SPA covered a wide range of family planning and related services, maximized income, gender, and age eligibility, and allowed for immediate, temporary coverage.
Expanded coverage eligibility to an estimated 1.2 million people, including 200,000 who were truly uninsured.
ICAN! continues to partner with HFS to oversee implementation of Illinois’ family planning SPA (now known as the HFS Family Planning Program):
Co-lead enrollment trainings for Illinois safety-net providers.
Provide technical assistance to health centers so they can maximize reimbursement under the program.
Review enrollment and utilization data in order to improve enrollment processes, expand covered services, broaden eligibility, and increase coverage utilization.
Supplement the information HFS provides on its website by creating a consumer-facing landing page that includes FAQs, eligibility quiz, Live Chat, and Provider Directory.
Since the SPA took effect in 2023 through June 2025, ICAN! and HFS’ efforts have resulted in over 2,000 providers trained and over 63,000 patients gaining coverage.
Esperanza Health Centers – Chicago, IL
Esperanza Health Centers is federally qualified health center serving approximately 13,000 female patients of reproductive age annually through 7 locations throughout the underserved Southwest Side of Chicago.
The Opportunity
In 2023, 1 in 4 patients was uninsured
Lack of information about covered services, eligibility requirements, and billing and enrollment procedures
Missed opportunities to enroll eligible patients in coverage and improve reimbursement for covered services, including IUD, Implant, and HPV vaccine
Solution and Outcome
Identified a large portion of their currently uninsured patients who would quality for coverage based on their age, gender, and income
Adopted a “whole health center” approach; worked with leadership, operations, and enrollment staff, implementing workflows to identify and enroll eligible patients in immediate coverage
Trained providers to correctly code for family planning visits and worked with billing staff to correct denied claims
Increased the total number and proportion of billable encounters from 70 to 970 per month within 5 months
Enrolled 4,800 patients in family planning coverage and saw their uninsured rate decline by 4% within 5 months