Pennsylvania Partnerships for Children’s Annual State of Children’s Health Care Report Released

Posted on by lad3

The opportunity to prosper begins with preventive health care when children are young. A healthy start includes immunizations, screenings, regular dental care, well-child visits and access to nutritious food.  However, 124,000 Pennsylvania children do not have health insurance, and children under six are the most likely to be without coverage according to our newest report, “State of Children’s Health Care in Pennsylvania: Powering Up Healthy Kids.”

While Pennsylvania’s uninsured rate falls below the national average, it remains stagnant at 4.4 percent, with Pennsylvania ranking in the middle of the pack at 24th for the percentage of uninsured children.

According to a new report released by the Georgetown University Center for Children and Families, the number of uninsured children increased nationally by more than 400,000 between 2016 and 2018, reversing a long-standing positive trend.

No child should be without health care insurance and our report sets a clear agenda to strengthen both access and coverage benefits in health care for the Commonwealth’s children.

Research: Policy Change and Implementation of a Needle Exchange Program Averts More than 10,000 Potential Diagnoses of HIV

Posted on by lad3

Syringe exchange programs (SEP) reduce HIV incidence associated with injection drug use (IDU), but legislation often prohibits implementation. We examined the policy change impact allowing for SEP implementation on HIV diagnoses among people who inject drugs in 2 US cities.

Using surveillance data from Philadelphia (1984–2015) and Baltimore (1985–2013) for IDU-associated HIV diagnoses, we used autoregressive integrated moving averages modeling to conduct 2 tests to measure policy change impact. We forecast the number of expected HIV diagnoses per city had policy not changed in the 10 years after implementation and compared it with the number of observed diagnoses postpolicy change, obtaining an estimate for averted HIV diagnoses. We then used interrupted time series analysis to assess the immediate step and trajectory impact of policy change implementation on IDU-attributable HIV diagnoses.

The Philadelphia (1993–2002) model predicted 15,248 new IDU-associated HIV diagnoses versus 4656 observed diagnoses, yielding 10,592 averted HIV diagnoses over 10 years. The Baltimore model (1995–2004) predicted 7263 IDU-associated HIV diagnoses versus 5372 observed diagnoses, yielding 1891 averted HIV diagnoses over 10 years. Considering program expenses and conservative estimates of public sector savings, the 1-year return on investment in SEPs remains high: $243.4 M (Philadelphia) and $62.4 M (Baltimore).

The authors conclude that pPolicy change is an effective structural intervention with substantial public health and societal benefits, including reduced HIV diagnoses among people who inject drugs and significant cost savings to publicly funded HIV care.

Access the full report here.

DentaQuest Report Part 1: The Burden of Dental Care Costs for Low-Income Families

Posted on by Kalyn Bilger

Did you know that people living in poverty spend ten times more as a proportion of their annual family income on dental services than high-income families? Click here to read Part 1 of our 3-part series that outlines barriers to dental care based on income, and how expansion of an adult dental benefit could increase access to care and reduce out-of-pocket costs.

Stay tuned for Parts 2 and 3 in our series about the burden of out-of-pocket costs of dental care for low-income families. Visit our Research page for other research briefs, white papers, articles and more.

Read the report from DentaQuest here: https://www.dentaquestpartnership.org/system/files/Poverty%20Report.pdf

Challenges to Mapping Broadband Availability

Posted on by lad3

The Congressional Research Service (CRS) serves all congressional committees and Members of Congress by analyzing all aspects of current policies and the impact of proposed policy alternatives.  In this report, the CRS identifies the federal agencies involved in mapping broadband access across the United States, and factors contributing to the urban/rural digital divide.  The Federal Communications Commission currently has a map that shows residential internet service connections per 1,000 households and the CRS report seeks to make it easier to understand how rural areas are impacted.  The report can be accessed here.

National Domestic Violence Awareness Month

Posted on by Kalyn Bilger

October is National Domestic Violence Awareness Month. About 1 in 4 women and 1 in 7 men in the U.S. experience IPV in their lifetime.

New Report: The HRSA Office of Women’s Health has released the first progress report on The HRSA Strategy to Address Intimate Partner Violence, 2017-2020 (PDF – 428 KB). The report highlights key achievements by HRSA Bureaus and Offices between 2017 and 2018. Read the report’s executive summary to learn more (PDF – 3.1 MB).

Domestic Violence Awareness Month Webinar: Thurs., Oct. 31, 1:00 – 2:30 p.m. ET. HRSA’s Office of Women’s Health and Office of Regional Operations will host a webinar that highlights state-level efforts to address intimate partner violence and provide strategies for implementing trauma-informed care in health settings. Register to attend.

HRSA’s Biennial 2019 Ryan White HIV/AIDS Program Highlights Released

Posted on by Kalyn Bilger

HRSA’s HIV/AIDS Bureau released its 2019 biennial report highlighting five Ryan White HIV/AIDS Program recipients who implemented successful strategies and models of HIV care and treatment – including practice transformation, public-private partnerships, rapid entry to HIV care and delivery of ART, the use of telehealth/telemedicine, and a jurisdictional approach to providing treatment and care. The 2019 biennial report theme is “Advancing Innovation to End the HIV Epidemic.”

Read the report

Quality Measures for Critical Access Hospital Swing-Bed Patients Report

Posted on by Kalyn Bilger

This study identified measures to be used to assess the quality of care provided to Critical Access Hospital (CAH) swing-bed patients with the goal of having these measures endorsed by the National Quality Forum and used by policymakers to help assess the value of CAH swing beds.

Read more: https://rhrc.umn.edu/publication/quality-measures-for-critical-access-hospital-swing-bed-patients/

Toolkit: State Strategies to Support Older Adults Aging in Place in Rural Areas

Posted on by Kalyn Bilger

This toolkit highlights state initiatives to help older rural adults age in place by increasing services that help people remain in their homes, expanding and professionalizing the caregiver workforce, improving transportation access and services, and making delivery reforms within Medicaid programs.

See report here: https://nashp.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/State-Strategies-to-Support-Older-Adults-Aging-in-Place-in-Rural-Areas_9_13_2019.pdf

 

Increasing Access to Healthy Food & Exercise in Public Housing

Posted on by lad3

The National Center for Health in Public Housing (NCHPH) released a new publication, Increasing Access to Healthy Food and Exercise in Public Housing Communities, that addresses the existing challenges of living in communities with poor access to healthy foods and safe places to exercise. It includes examples of Public Health Housing Primary Care Grantee strategies and programs that have increased access to healthy food, exercise and weight control.