Today, the “Let’s Get Healthy California Task Force,” will review a draft of report geared to making California the healthiest state in the nation. This is one of several key events highlighting California’s continued work advancing health policy and health reform.
In a meeting today in Sacramento, the task force will review both the goals, strategic direction, and interventions that are being considered in this ambitious undertaking. The task force was established earlier this year by Governor Jerry Brown with an executive order, and is co-chaired by California Health and Human Services Secretary Diana Dooley and Dr. Don Berwick, former President and CEO of the Institute for Healthcare Improvement and former Administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, and a noted advocate of patient reforms. The appointed task force members represent a wide variety of expertise and experience.
The task force first met in June, and have since been working to put together this plan to improve the health of all Californians by determining key goals, and recommending public and private sector actions that will result in better health, better care, and lower healthcare costs for all Californians.
The draft report, publicly available here, includes a sobering summary of the challenges currently faced by the state, but also an in depth look at some of the opportunities we have to meet these challenges, including through the implementation of the Affordable Care Act.
The Task Force detemined two strategic directions, dubbed Health Across the Lifespan, and Pathways to Health, and six goals within those directions, each of which encompassed a broad range of issues. The Task Force selected 29 priority areas for focus and also identified 40 performance indicators to help monitor California’s progress toward becoming healthier over time.
The six goals identified by the task force are:
Goal 1. Healthy Beginnings: Laying the Foundation for a Healthy Life
Goal 2. Living Well: Preventing and Managing Chronic Disease
Goal 3. End-of-Life: Maintaining Health, Dignity, and Independence
Goal 4. Redesigning the Health System: Efficient, Safe, and Patient-Centered Care
Goal 5. Creating Healthy Communities: Enabling Healthy Living
Goal 6. Lowering the Cost of Care: Making Coverage Affordable and Aligning Financing to Health Outcomes
The Task Force is soliciting comments on these goals and is looking for advice on the possibility for intervention. Task Force members were charged with working through their organizations and affiliations to create the change needed to make California healthy.
EXCHANGE MEETING: For the first time since the re-election of President Barack Obama, the newly named “Covered California” Health Benefits Exchange will meet tomorrow, Wednesday November 14th. A key action item is to approve a federal proposal for funding its start-up operations for the next two years and its plan for sustainability afterwards. Information is available on its website at www.hbex.ca.gov
HEALTH ACCESS SYMPOSIUM: On December 4th, Health Access will celebrate its 25th anniversary with a symposium on “Fulfilling the Promise” of health reform, with key health policy leaders including California HHS Secretary Diana Dooley, Senator Ed Hernandez, chair of the Senate Health Committee, Assemblyman Richard Pan, Chair of the Assembly Health Committee, and Assemblywoman Holly Mitchell, chair of the Assembly Budget Subcommittee on Health and Human Services.
Get tickets at: http://ha25anniversary.eventbrite.com/ More information is available at http://www.health-access.org/item.asp?id=213
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