Hawaii’s Med QUEST Division (MQD) is being honored in Category 1: Building a Customer Focused Culture for its innovative, equity driven approach to improving Medicaid communications and preventing unnecessary coverage losses.

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To better serve the nearly one third of Hawaii’s population that relies on Medicaid or CHIP, MQD partnered with CommunityConnect Labs to launch a multilingual SMS and Interactive Voice Response outreach campaign designed to reduce terminations caused by missed paperwork or confusing communication, particularly for non English speaking and low income residents.

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Through personalized, real time text messages and phone calls offered in seventeen languages, MQD transformed how it communicates with the public. The outreach was fully integrated with the state’s eligibility system, ensuring that only residents who needed to take action were contacted. Caseworkers were also given access to complete message histories, allowing them to provide more effective and compassionate support.

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The results have been powerful. In just five months, MQD prevented nearly 3,900 unnecessary terminations, with projections showing nearly 10,000 people retaining coverage annually. Procedural terminations were reduced by 23 percent through SMS and 20 percent through phone outreach. The program has significantly improved retention rates among non English speakers and low to middle income residents.

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This modern, equity driven approach has improved access to care, reduced administrative burdens, and provided a replicable model for how government can use technology to connect with people in ways that are timely, culturally sensitive, and effective.