575: New CMS Program, Public Health Funding Deadlines

ROBERT JOHNSON: 

This is the award-winning Public Health Review Morning Edition for Monday, January 8, 2024. I'm Robert Johnson. Now, today's news from the Association of State and Territorial Health Officials.

TEQUILA TERRY: 

The herd model is the next generation of state-based multi-payer total cost of care models from the CMS Innovation Center.

JOHNSON: 

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services wants applications from states interested in a new approach to health care costs and population health. Tequila Terry says the AHEAD model advances successes like those realized in Vermont, Maryland, and Pennsylvania.

TERRY: 

We've seen from these models that state based models have the potential to generate savings to foster quality and population health improvements, and to really build system wide care, delivery, and transformation.

JOHNSON: 

Terry says the AHEAD model is ambitious and will require a significant commitment from states selected to join one of three cohorts created over the next several months.

TERRY: 

In exchange for agreeing to take on accountability to advance accountable care population health and health equity, the AHEAD model will give participating states tools, flexibilities, and incentives to curb health care costs growth, to also align existing quality improvement efforts, and then to ultimately implement care transformation activities that advance health equity.

JOHNSON: 

Among the many requirements on the application, Terry says states will need to provide...

TERRY: 

A description of the state applicant and any partners the state will have as part of the AHEAD process and assessment of readiness for the AHEAD model components so, things like existing legislation related to the primary care investment and, or the cost growth targets. The application should also include a vision for population health improvement and primary care transformation, and a proposed strategy for hospital and primary care recruitment.

JOHNSON: 

Cohort members will receive funding and technical assistance. Applications for cohort three will be due in August. Get more information using the links in the show notes.

Congress gets back to work this week and already has two funding deadlines important to public health. ASTHO's Carolyn Mullen says January 19 and February 2 are key dates for funding of WIC, FDA, HERSA, SAMSA, CDC, and NIH programs.

CAROLYN MULLEN: 

So, we are uniting with the coalition for health funding, which runs our larger coalition called Non-defense Discretionary Programs United so, NDD United and we signed on to a letter urging Congress to increase funding for non-defense discretionary programs and to not allow catastrophic cuts to happen to these programs in any deal that happens in the next couple of weeks.

JOHNSON: 

Mullen discusses the week ahead on Capitol Hill in her first View from Washington D.C. report of the new year, it aired Friday, you can listen now by clicking on the episode in your podcast player.

Also today, investigators may never know how cantaloupe from Mexico was contaminated with salmonella recently, but Kirk Smith with the Minnesota Department of Health says there are some common theories.

KIRK SMITH: 

In most instances, the source of contamination is likely the soil in which the melons are grown, or the water with which they are irrigated. In this particular outbreak, cross contamination from the contaminated melons to other melons in processing plants during the cutting process could also have added to the case count.

JOHNSON: 

Smith adds partnerships are essential when it's time to respond to a foodborne outbreak.

SMITH: 

There needs to be timely and effective collaboration between local state and federal government agencies, between laboratory, epidemiology, and environmental health, and regulatory partners and finally, between all of these entities, the food production industry and academia.

JOHNSON: 

Finally, this morning, food and housing insecurity can have big impacts on public health, but it can also be tough to get funding to address these challenges. O'Keyla Cooper has more.

O'KEYLA COOPER: 

Social determinants of health such as housing significantly impact individual and community well-being. State and territorial health agencies face challenges in securing funding to address these issues. A strategic approach is braiding and layering funding, which ASTHO provides resources and guidance to help health agency staff implement effectively. Access to these resources can be found via the link in the show notes.

JOHNSON: 

Before we go, we'd like to remind you to follow this newscast on your podcast player and ASTHO on social media. We're on LinkedIn, Twitter, and Facebook. That'll do it for today.

We're back tomorrow morning with more ASTHO news and information. I'm Robert Johnson. You're listening to the award-winning Public Health Review Morning Edition. Have a great day.