1001: Public Health + Medicaid

JANSON SILVERS: 

This is the award-winning Public Health Review Morning Edition for September 30, 2025. I'm Janson Silvers. Now, today's news from the Association of State and Territorial Health Officials.

JULIE SULLIVAN: 

In our data-driven world, sharing information between Medicaid and public health agencies is an innovative approach to efficiently using limited resources to serve both individual patient and population health goals and priorities. Often, states already have the needed technology, but they may not have the partnerships or workforce infrastructure to leverage those existing investments across different agencies.

SILVERS: 

This morning, we have a special episode that dives into data sharing between Medicaid and public health agencies to see the benefits. Julie Sullivan, a principal at BarryDunn, is here to share more. BarryDunn is a member of ASTHO's Innovation Advisory Council, a new collaborative of private sector partners that keep ASTHO's membership informed and nimble on emerging topics that affect public health.

Julie, how can agencies use information and data that they already have to make a difference?

SULLIVAN: 

By leveraging existing data systems and fostering a collaborative environment, states can achieve broad information sharing goals that enhance health outcomes. Public health agencies can maximize the present moment, when resources are increasingly scarce to build partnerships that put needed data in the hands of public health officials, while saving precious funding in the process. Public health's focus on long-term prevention and community-level interventions can greatly benefit from partnering with Medicaid, especially in these challenging funding times, because the two agencies serve the same population who are disenfranchised and who are most likely to have their social circumstances impact their health outcomes.

SILVERS: 

When you talk about partnerships between Medicaid and public health agencies, how does that impact public health operations?

SULLIVAN: 

Well, across the nation, Medicaid and public health agencies are working together to leverage IT infrastructure to support wide-reaching, mutually beneficial population health goals, whether it's ensuring that health records have accurate death data or public health has real-time lab results on disease outbreaks, there's a lot to learn from what's already working in the field. The COVID-19 pandemic proved that our health information system and infrastructure was not sufficient and that existing systems were not being used to their capacity.

SILVERS: 

We're convinced these partnerships are important. How do you advise public health staff to initiate these partnerships?

SULLIVAN: 

That's perhaps one of the greatest obstacles, is working across silos, and any partnership requires trust and understanding. It's helpful to understand the context of Medicaid data systems and their current challenges so you can meet your prospective partners where they are. And it's important to know that Medicaid, the Medicaid enterprise system, is a portfolio of systems that support various functions such as eligibility, care management, provider enrollment, and often data analytics. In many states, Medicaid is also funding or has a great stake in the health information exchanges, which centralizes clinical health information for access across disparate care settings. Medicaid IT systems are funded from a combination of federal and state resources. The federal government provides matching funds from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, or CMS. These federal investments vary by state, but CMS often invests in systems that enable effective Medicaid operations. Some of these CMS-supported systems are typical to Medicaid, such as claims management, while others are typical to public health agencies, such as immunization registries. So, finding these areas of common ground are wonderful starting points to initiate partnership dialogs with your colleagues in Medicaid.

SILVERS: 

And what would you say a successful partnership really looks like?

SULLIVAN: 

First, you need leaders in both organizations that really see and value the benefits of this kind of partnership to leverage resources and have the greatest impact on their shared population. It's also important to know how Medicaid systems are going to communicate with public health agency systems or interoperate. This means appreciating the need to adopt standardized data formats and protocols that allow the different systems to share and interpret data accurately. Both clinical and public health data sets are defined by clear data standards. But that doesn't mean that the health care community is adhering to these standards consistently. Matters of equity, technical and workforce enhancements, policy, enforcement, and incentives all require local collaboration, expert support, and partnerships with leaders aiming for interoperability.

SILVERS: 

Finally, where can public health staff find resources to help them form these types of partnerships with Medicaid?

SULLIVAN: 

There are so many public health leaders from across the nation that can share their experiences who are working on these kinds of partnerships and doing some innovations with their Medicaid partners would seek out colleagues in other states to learn more about their journeys in this area. For example, in North Carolina and Maine, they're using the Health Information Exchange, funded in part by Medicaid, to support providers in streamlining mandated reporting so the data in their electronic health records satisfies the reporting requirements, and public health data is more complete, providing the public health agencies with direct-from-provider surveillance data is one of the most common examples of a public health Medicaid partnership. In Kentucky. They're providing public health services spanning mandated reporting of surveillance data to the public health agency, as well as automation of immunization data into the state's immunization registry. Also, ASTHO came out with a report called 'Sustaining DMI: Leveraging Medicaid to Advance Public Health Data and Surveillance.' Reading that report is a great way to center yourself on some of these core concepts of advancing public health data goals through a partnership with Medicaid. Here at BerryDunn, we have hands-on experience working with both Medicaid and public health agencies. We are implementation partners to many Medicaid and public health agencies across the nation, so we have a great deal of experience in creating opportunities for public health agencies and Medicaid to collaborate and maximize scant resources. Reach out, we can help.

SILVERS: 

Thank you so much for your time, Julie.

You can find more information on BarryDunn's work in this area and the resources our guest was referring to in the show notes.

That'll do it for today. We're back tomorrow morning with more ASTHO news and information. I'm Janson Silvers. You're listening to the award-winning Public Health Review Morning Edition. Have a great day.