709: Guam’s Business Process Improvement Program, Leveraging Medicaid to Support CHWs

JANSON SILVERS: 

This is the award-winning Public Health Review Morning Edition for Thursday, July 18, 2024. I'm Janson Silvers. Now, today's news from the Association of State and Territorial Health Officials.

KARL ENSIGN: 

So, the project is working with the department of interior in the jurisdiction of Guam and improving their business processes.

SILVERS: 

ASTHO Vice President of Island Support Karl inside discusses ASTHO's work on the Guam Inner Agency Business Process Improvement Program to strengthen administrative capacity project, ASTHO was awarded $500,000 for the work.

ENSIGN: 

We find it's essential to build and improve business processes related to procurement, purchasing the goods and services, we need to carry out our programs, recruiting and onboarding staff to carry out those activities, and effectively managing grants.

SILVERS: 

Ensign says being a good steward of the funds is important.

ENSIGN: 

The worst possible scenarios when that funding is not drawn down and given back to the Treasury. So, our approach is one that we spend a fair amount of time prior to arriving on site looking at the various processes, collecting background documentation, spending a lot of time with leadership, developing memorandum of understanding between partner agencies on how exactly we go about this work.

SILVERS: 

Ensign adds that there's a lot to do before the end of the year.

ENSIGN: 

So we map the current state process, we arrive at priorities and pain points, we map our new process and get a broker agreement on that, and then we develop the SOPs and training tools and that sort of thing to carry out the work and so we hope to have that completed by December of 2025.

SILVERS: 

Find more information about the entire project by reading the article linked in the show notes.

An ASTHO audio blog article dives into the intricacies of using Medicaid authorities to leverage community health worker initiatives. Diana Crumley with the Center for Health Care strategies says community health workers are starting to be seen as the important workforce in health care that they truly are.

DIANA CRUMLEY: 

Over the past decade, Medicaid has increasingly seen community health workers as a really essential and integral workforce. Really an important workforce that connects both health and social care, and really builds trust with communities and particularly communities that have been marginalized.

SILVERS: 

Crumley explains that the 1115 demonstrations allow state Medicaid agencies to test innovative or experimental models for their Medicaid program.

CRUMLEY: 

Each administration often comes up with ideas to potentially test via a section 1115 demonstration opportunity. And most recently, essentially, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services really responded to immense state interests and health related social needs, and outlined a variety of services that could be covered.

SILVERS: 

One example is providing community health worker services. Another is using Medicaid funding for social needs like housing.

CRUMLEY: 

And I think most notable, which states or your audience may have heard about, is potentially using Medicaid to cover six months of transitional rent for a small subset of the population that may be transitioning from a nursing facility or perhaps, transitioning from homelessness within a particular state.

SILVERS: 

You hear the full 20 minute interview with Crumley by clicking the link in the show notes. We also have links other resources pertaining to 1115 waivers.

Also today, ASTHO has a new blog article focused on the integration of health equity into state and local data sharing practices. The blog article discusses the impact of health equity on these practices, as well as key considerations for state and local data sharing. You can read the article by using the link in the show notes.

Finally, today, a conversation with the Project Director from Pew Charitable Trusts, enlightens us on how to share data between public health and providers. O'Keyla Cooper has more.

O'KEYLA COOPER: 

In a new blog article, ASTHO interviews Lilly Khan from the Pew Charitable Trusts to discuss improving data sharing between healthcare providers and public health agencies. Khan highlights Pew's initiatives, including a 50 state report on data sharing policies and emphasizes the importance of seamless data exchange for better public health outcomes. Read the full blog article by clicking the link in the show notes.

SILVERS: 

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