Services

Click for information specific to: Families or Advocates

Advocacy and Benefits Counseling for Health is a Wisconsin-based nonprofit public interest law firm dedicated to ensuring health care access for children and families, particularly those with special needs or who are at risk. ABC for Health's mission is to provide health care consumers with the information, advocacy tools, legal services, and expert support they need to navigate through America's complex and confusing health care financing system. The following outlines the major services we provide:

Health Benefits Counseling
ABC for Health advocacy staff can help you locate health care financing resources for your family, offer counseling on the application or appeals process, and advocate for you when a conflict arises with an insurer, public benefits program, or a provider's billing department.

Legal Services for Health Care Financing
Sometimes, just knowing what your rights are isn't enough. You may need to have legal consultation and representation to enforce those rights. ABC for Health has legal staff to help you challenge health insurance claim denials, negotiate with creditors, and represent you in appeals before government agencies.

Covering Kids and Families MAP Projects
ABC is the lead agency for two major initiatives in Wisconsin. Covering Kids, sponsored as part of a nationwide program by The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, seeks to connect uninsured kids to health care coverage programs through outreach and simplifying the enrollment process. Families MAP focuses on improving the managed care system for children with special health care needs and is funded by the Federal Maternal and Child Health Bureau.

Professional Training and Consultation
ABC for Health staff are seasoned teachers on health care financing issues. We offer comprehensive in-house training sessions for groups large and small, open-invitation conferences, and in-depth consultation to those interested in developing their health care financing knowledge and their benefits counseling skills.

Public Information Services
ABC for Health's newsletters can help you stay current in the ever-changing world of health care financing, especially our Weekly Update email service. ABC's website (www.abcforhealth.org) features fact sheets on financing resources, web versions of our newsletters, and links to vital info for the health benefits counselor.

Health System Research and Advocacy
Individual casework is a key to understanding the structure of the financing system and how it fails the American people. At ABC for Health, we work to translate our case-level insights into strategies for change by taking an active advocacy role in public policy debates at both the state and national level.