(An Iowa News Service report) – Parents of kids with disabilities in Iowa can apply for grants to help offset the costs of medical services that traditional insurance plans don’t cover. It’s part of a plan by UnitedHealthcare to bridge the gap between high fees for specialty medical services and a family’s ability to pay them. Neary 34,000 Iowa children younger than 18 have disabilities, nearly 5% of the state population in that age group.

Scott Otto, assistant executive director of the UnitedHealthcare Children’s Foundation, said the insurance provider makes grants available to parents through its foundation to help cover kids’ medical costs that traditional insurance may reject. “The goal of these grants is to help alleviate the financial burden that a family might be enduring,” he said, “where their commercial coverage may not cover, or may not fully cover, the cost of the needed care.”

The State Data Center Iowa reports that 98.1% of children under age 19 who have a disability are covered by insurance, many by state-sponsored plans. (Adobe Stock)

Parents do have to be enrolled in a traditional health-care plan to qualify for the grants, but it does not have to be with UnitedHealthcare. Parents can apply for an annual $5.000 grant for each of their kids, but the awards are capped at $10,000 over a child’s lifetime. The grants can be used to cover a variety of services, including therapy, prescriptions and medical devices – or even to help offset the cost of major surgeries that may not be covered.

“We certainly can help underwrite some of those costs,” he said, “but we’re also able to underwrite even just some of the little more day-to-day, kind of drip, drip, drip, kind of cost – the $20 co-pay every time you go to the pharmacy, or every time you go to a physical therapy, or that kind of a visit.”

The foundation has awarded more than 40,000 grants totaling $80 million since UnitedHealthcare launched the program in 2005. Grant applications are online at UHCCF.org.