545: Medicaid and Public Health Collaborate, Covey’s Parting Advice

ROBERT JOHNSON: 

This is the award-winning Public Health Review Morning Edition for Wednesday, November 15, 2023. I'm Robert Johnson. Now, today's news from the Association of State and Territorial Health Officials.

SHANNON DOWLER: 

This can be an incredibly tricky space but also one with huge opportunities.

JOHNSON: 

Dr. Shannon Dowler is chief medical officer for North Carolina Medicaid. She says health care gets better when state Medicaid and public health agencies take the time to understand each other.

DOWLER: 

A lot of the times public health team will say we need this, or payer will say this is what we need, as opposed to sitting together in the room and collaborating and trying to figure out how can you solve a shared problem.

JOHNSON: 

According to Dowler, agency cooperation can deliver real results.

DOWLER: 

We found that North Carolina was one of the states with the lowest prep to need ratio, meaning that we were not providing prevention for HIV services. So, we put our heads together and came up with a way to modify our family planning Medicaid waiver to include everything that a practice would need to cover prep services for a beneficiary that had the limited family planning benefit, and by doing that, we help public health, and they help us have healthier patients.

JOHNSON: 

Dowler says it all comes down to communication and partnership.

DOWLER: 

So public health, understanding what we need as a payer to make sure that we have the best outcomes for our members and us understanding what public health needs as a responsibility for the whole state, not just the people and Medicaid, is really important.

JOHNSON: 

ASTHO has a new report about the role of public health in the health safety net system, you can read it using the link in the show notes.

For the last two days, we've heard from author Stephen Covey about how to build trust in public health. He's offered a lot of good advice. Today, he tells us what to do first.

STEPHEN COVEY: 

Knowing where public health officials have been and what's going on in our society in our world, my advice would be this, to focus as best you can on trying to build this trust from the inside out, starting with trust your own credibility as a leader and then that of your team and of your organization because that's more in your circle of influence.

JOHNSON: 

Covey met with ASTHO members in Washington, D.C., in late October. He says leaders need to begin where they can have the most impact.

COVEY: 

Start inside and say okay. I maybe can't solve the public health trust crisis that's out there and the lack of trust people have in public health or in authorities, or in experts, but what I can do is help build a high-trust team, a high trust culture, a high-trust department, a high-trust agency where there's internal trust with each other, and as we increase that internal trust, we'll be better positioned to have a stronger platform more credibility to begin to increase the external trust.

JOHNSON: 

West Virginia State Health Officer Dr. Matthew Christiansen was at the meeting and heard Covey's remarks.

MATTHEW CHRISTIANSEN: 

What I took away from that were some very specific tools and things, and approaches that I am working into some of my existing relationships, and projects, and programs to try to help rebuild some of that trust and show the effectiveness of the work that we do, and the value in the work that we do, and that we are important partners in maintaining public health.

JOHNSON: 

Christiansen says he was inspired to find ways to implement some of Covey's advice as soon as he returned home.

CHRISTIANSEN: 

Naming the issue and the importance of trust is important so that we can continue to have the discussions about how we make that a priority. Another important piece for me was around building these stakeholder engagement groups building a regular venue and a cadence with which we reach out to partners, but the third piece that I think is really important to highlight is the importance of intentional listening.

JOHNSON: 

Also today, ASTHO is hiring. It has a temporary position for an accounting analyst and is looking for a manager of multimedia production. Get more information using the links in the show notes.

Finally, this morning, Public Health Thank You Day is next Monday, November 20. To celebrate the occasion, we're asking people what they're thankful for, and sharing those comments each day between now and thanksgiving. Today's thank you note is by Dr. Somava Saha, president and CEO of Well-being and Equity in the World.

SOMAVA SAHA: 

I am so thankful for all the we's in our lives. You know all the people that come together in each of these communities to create a new possibility. I think the world is what we imagined it to be and work to make it, and I think that, to me, is what as I spend time when you know when you asked me that I don't think of that generically. I see the faces of real people in real communities who are showing that it's possible that it can be done. So, to me, that's what I'm grateful for. I'm grateful for every one of those people.

JOHNSON: 

The American Public Health Association has a web page with resources to help you celebrate the day. We have the link in the show notes.

And another reminder: stay up to date on everything happening in public health when you sign up for ASTHO's Public Health Weekly email newsletter; there's a link to join the list in the show notes.

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.