Population & Public Health
Community Health Workers, Medicaid, and the Social Determinants of Health
Community Health Workers (CHWs) are increasingly involved in efforts to improve health by addressing social determinants, and many Medicaid managed care participants benefit from their services, according to a new article from Pew. How do CHWs fit with your state’s health system transformation and health equity efforts?
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State Financing for Healthy Homes (Lead and Asthma Services)
The National Center for Healthy Housing surveyed states to see how they finance home-based asthma services and lead poisoning follow-up. According to the report, some state Medicaid programs reimburse for asthma services and lead follow-up provided by community health workers (CHWs). How does your Medicaid program address housing-related illnesses? Are CHWs involved in your state’s […]
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Population Health
The ultimate goal of health care is to improve and maintain people’s health and functional status. Population health goals are best attained through the coordinated efforts of the public health and personal health systems. The prevention and public health components of the ACA represent a fundamental shift from public health as an afterthought, subject to […]
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Enhancing Care Quality for Medicaid Beneficiaries Living with HIV/AIDS: New NASHP Case Studies
NASHP has written two case studies for HealthHIV’s Three D HIV Prevention Program, which is supported by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), and provides technical assistance to better inform programmatic decisions impacting the delivery of quality HIV prevention and treatment services: New York’s experience implementing performance metrics for the HIV/AIDS population in its Medicaid managed […]
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State Levers to Advance Accountable Communities for Health
States are testing a myriad of models that strive to achieve the Triple Aim objectives of improved care, reduced health care costs, and better health. Though several statewide health care delivery and payment system reforms have been shown to help slow the growth of health care expenditures and improve methods for delivering health care, taken […]
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New Law to Curb Opioid Abuse and Diversion Passed in Maine, Strengthens Prescription Drug Monitoring Program
Governor Paul LePage signed into law “An Act to Prevent Opiate Abuse by Strengthening the Controlled Substances Prescription Monitoring Program” (now PL 2015, c. 488) on April 19, 2016, making Maine the second state to pass legislation on the issue this year. In March, Massachusetts passed the nation’s first law limiting first-time opioid prescriptions. Maine’s […]
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Braiding and Blending Funding Streams to Meet the Health-Related Social Needs of Low-Income Persons: Considerations for State Health Policymakers
Medicaid beneficiaries often need support outside the scope of clinical health care in order to lead healthy lives, and states are uniquely poised to provide this support by addressing the social determinants of health. While states steward a variety of funding sources that address the needs of low-income populations, too often a Medicaid beneficiary must […]
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Advancing Healthcare Transformation Through a State Surgeon General Model: Opportunities and Challenges
Implementation of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) has opened the door to new opportunities for health policymakers to address the nation’s growing chronic disease epidemic through integrated solutions that begin to bridge the health care, public health, and social services sectors. To take advantage of these opportunities, state policymakers have incorporated a greater focus on […]
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Meeting the Health-Related Social Needs of Low-Income Persons: Funding Sources Available to States
The Accountable Health Communities initiative recently announced by the Center for Medicare & Medicaid Innovation (CMMI) holds promise for helping communities bridge the gap between health care and social services. This important work has the potential to improve health in communities by addressing food insecurity, housing instability, and other social determinants of health. Although the […]
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Community Health Workers in the Wake of Health Care Reform: Considerations for State and Federal Policymakers
As states and the nation transform their health systems, many policymakers are turning to community health workers (CHWs) to tackle some of the most challenging aspects of health improvement, such as facilitating care coordination, enhancing access to community-based services, mitigating the impacts of the social determinants of health, reducing health disparities, and containing costs. In […]
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