State Strategies In Health

Lt. Governor Jeanette Nunez, Florida

• Appears in English and Spanish promoting COVID info and health screenings
• Asked residents fully recovered from COVID to donate their plasma
• Chaired the Re-Open Florida Task Force Executive Committee

• Dental therapists provide preventive and routine restorative care.
• These midlevel providers maximize resources and expand workforce.
• State approval of dental therapy may increase oral health care to underserved areas.

• Sixteen million Americans provide unpaid care for dementia patients valued at $244 billion.
• To support this, states may establish a respite care infrastructure and increase and align services and Medicaid to enable people with dementia to remain at home.

• One-third to one-half of Americans are reporting anxiety or depression, three times the previous year
• Arts are proven effective in reducing anxiety and increasing satisfaction—improving both quality of care and the financial bottom line, for all including military

• Lieutenant Governor’s Office of eHealth Innovation disrupts the status quo
• In two years, reduced health insurance cost for individuals in the private market by 20.2%
• Office of Saving People Money on Health Care coordinates 10 state agencies

• Lt. Governor chairs the Michigan Coronavirus Task Force on Racial Disparities
• Implementing policies saw percent of Black Michiganders’ COVID deaths drop from 40% in the spring to just 5.7% in early Fall.

• Multiple factors cause obesity to disproportionately impact minorities
• Access to the full continuum of obesity care – intensive behavioral therapy, pharmacotherapy, and bariatric surgery – is essential to obesity management

• CAQH’s nonprofit ‘COB Smart’ is a unique coordination of benefits solution where >45 health plans contribute eligibility data to a registry then shared with commercial and government participating plans, to identify medical overlaps before claims are paid with 99.5% accuracy. One plan reported an 80:1 return on investment.

• Safe routes to schools include pavement markings, bike lanes, more
• Work zone safety improves with innovation like including work zone safety in driver’s education
• Guardrail, pavement markings, traffic signs and signals makes roads safer

• Google is helping governments offer accurate information on COVID-19 to constituents by offering government entities free search ad credit for use through the end of 2021, as well as a volunteer account manager from Google

Lt. Governor Billy Nungesser, Louisiana

• By August 2020, LA State Parks had 48% more visitors than the previous year.
• The state offered “stay three nights, get a fourth night free.”
• Parks added hand sanitizer; gave out State Parks masks; and sanitized twice daily.

• 14 states got CDC funds to grow health capacity for Alzheimer’s.
• CO, GA, HI, IA, ME, MN, MS, NV, NC, OK, RI, VT, VA, & WI received grants.
• NLGA’s Alzheimer’s representative can help you with this or the next round of grants.

• When arts are part of the healthcare experience, the result is shorter hospital stays, less depression, and less medication which equal reduced costs.
• This can be poster art in the room, craft carts, musicians, or much more.

• AUD is a chronic brain disorder characterized by an impaired ability to stop or control alcohol use despite consequences.
• FDA-approved MAT for alcohol dependence with therapy can aid recovery.

• To improve efficiency and effectiveness, do extensive outreach within the department.
• Integrated human services delivery is holistic and ensures coordination.
• Consider consolidating physical county offices for one-stop services.

• Hawaiian homeless have higher rates of mental illness and addiction, and shorter lives.
• Housing Hawaii’s chronically homeless would save $300 million per year in Medicaid savings.
• Solutions include tiny homes, one-stop PPP health care, and treating mental illness.

• Lt. Governor hosts bi-weekly calls for Black, Latino, non-English speaker and faith leaders.
• Focus on joint accountability among the state and health, community, and business communities and the general population.

• Self-care products have $146 billion value to the U.S. healthcare system by helping reduce unnecessary doctor visits, increase work productivity, and more.
• Visit www.MyOldMeds.com to find the closest local drug collection bin.

• Support continued robust use of telehealth by supporting greater uniformity in state licensing and ensure appropriate reimbursement for access and sustainability.

• Increase qualified professionals through reciprocity standards.
• Update the “emergency facility” definition to allow evaluations beyond ERs.
• Combating opioids includes inter-agency coordination and more resources.

• Establish malnutrition public health goals and quality measures.
• Ensure quality malnutrition care is included in preventive and social services, patient safety, care transitions, and population health strategies for older adults.

• Studies show integrating mental health and substance use disorders services into the physical health services of Medicaid managed care organizations improves outcomes.

• Help under-resourced healthcare clinics identify and address climate risks, such as extreme heat, to improve patient health
• Model the impacts of climate actions on human health, specifically brain health

• Biologics are complex treatments made from living organisms, such as bacteria or yeast—which treat diseases like cancer or chronic disease.
• Biosimilar filgrastim saved the US healthcare system about $1.2 billion from 2016 to 2020.