This report describes six potential integration strategies that state agencies might employ to better integrate social services and health care delivery. For each, the report contains examples from several states that have utilized these strategies in their own efforts to increase integration.
High-profile diseases such as Ebola and Zika grab headlines, but state health policymakers know that emergency preparedness begins long before the first news stories—or symptoms—appear. At the nexus of federal policy and local concern, state health policymakers are well-positioned to lead prior to, and during, health emergencies.
Increasingly, health departments are serving as leaders in communities to address the root causes of health inequities. This requires changing systems and policies, and working with non-traditional partners to ensure that all people have the opportunity to attain their highest level of health. On December 12, 2016, PHNCI explored the stories of two health departments working to transform communities such that zip codes do not dictate health outcomes.
Stark health disparities make it difficult to move the needle on health outcomes and costs and reflect the fact that states face a variety of political and resource constraints when it comes to implementing health equity initiatives. While disparities still exist, all states have opportunities to advance health equity through a range of approaches, from incremental targeted programs to integration in broad health reform initiatives.
Leaders from across state governments, in both the executive and legislative branches, convened to help identify cross-cutting issues that provide opportunities to advance health reform and transform our health system to one that lowers cost, rewards value, and improves health. This brief presents key opportunities before the new administration that could maintain and accelerate state-based reforms.