302546
Sustaining the CHW Workforce: Utilizing Policy and Reform Opportunities
The session will focus on recent state efforts including Chapter 224 of the Acts of 2012, “An Act Improving the Quality of Health Care and Reducing Costs through Increased Transparency, Efficiency and Innovation” (including the Prevention and Wellness Trust Fund and Healthcare Workforce Transformation Fund) and the federal CMS ruling “which allows state Medicaid agencies to reimburse for preventive services provided by professionals that may fall outside of a state's clinical licensure system, as long as the services have been initially recommended by a physician or other licensed practitioner.”
The session will highlight the convergence of these policy changes with the work of the MA Board of Certification of CHWs (established in the Acts of 2010), and the Massachusetts Coordinated Health Promotion and Chronic Disease Prevention Plan. Presenters, including a CHW, will highlight how these efforts support the CHW workforce and advance the "Triple Aim" of "improving the patient experience of care; improving the health of populations; and reducing the per capita cost of health care." This interactive session will provide strategies that CHWs and policy makers from other states may draw upon to advance their CHW workforce initiatives.
Learning Areas:
Chronic disease management and preventionImplementation of health education strategies, interventions and programs
Planning of health education strategies, interventions, and programs
Public health or related public policy
Learning Objectives:
Describe three ways in which public policy can be utilized to support the CHW workforce.
Discuss the utilization of a Communities of Practice approach to develop and implement state or regional health strategies.
Identify the ways in which engagement of CHWs into chronic disease prevention efforts can effect integration into the healthcare team.
Identify the ways in which integration into chronic disease prevention efforts can promote financial sustainability of the CHW workforce.
Keyword(s): Community Health Workers and Promoters, Policy/Policy Development
Qualified on the content I am responsible for because: I have been involved in Massachusetts CHW education and policy related initiatives for more than a decade. Directly related to the content of this presentation, I co-chair the Community and Health Care Linkages Community of Practice (CoP) of the Massachusetts Partnership for Health Promotion and Chronic Disease Prevention, which is focusing on the sustainability of the CHW workforce.
Any relevant financial relationships? No
I agree to comply with the American Public Health Association Conflict of Interest and Commercial Support Guidelines, and to disclose to the participants any off-label or experimental uses of a commercial product or service discussed in my presentation.