218853 Cuyahoga Health Access Partnership: Developing an access program in Cuyahoga County, Ohio

Monday, November 8, 2010 : 8:30 AM - 8:50 AM

Katherine Nagel, MPH , Department of Public Health & Research, Cleveland Clinic, Cleveland, OH
Kenneth Frisof, MD , Center for Community Health - Broadway Health Center, MetroHealth System, Cleveland, OH
Lee Elmore , Executive Director, North Coast Health Ministry, Lakewood, OH
Francis Afram-Gyening, FACHE , Chief Executive Officer, Care Alliance Health Center, Cleveland, OH
Michael Anderson, MD, FAAP , Chief Medical Office, University Hospitals, Cleveland, OH
The Cuyahoga Health Access Partnership (CHAP) is a joint public-private partnership focused on access to care for the uninsured in Cuyahoga County. CHAP was founded on the principle of shared responsibility of all healthcare organizations to face the uninsured crisis in Ohio and the United States. Partners include safety net providers, major hospital systems, government entities, health plans, foundations and other relevant organizations. The vision of CHAP is to provide a system of health access for the adult uninsured to replace the current fragmentation in the health sector. While principally focused on strengthening primary care, the vision of coordinated, patient-centered care extends through the entire spectrum of service. The first major initiative of CHAP is to develop and implement a health access plan (scheduled for implementation Spring 2010). For the first year, program enrollment will be limited to County residents at or below 200% of the Federal Poverty Level between the ages of 19 and 64 who do not qualify for public health insurance and who do not have private coverage. CHAP provides immediate benefit to the community by: 1) Standardizing the enrollment and eligibility process across the provider network for patients; 2) Developing continuity of care across the primary and specialty care provider networks; and 3) Reducing reliance on episodic emergency department visits in favor of primary care homes for acute, non-life-threatening and chronic problems. CHAP builds on the safety net system to make care more accessible for the uninsured. It strengthens existing care systems to promote timely access to appropriate care, encouraging prevention, early detection, whole-person oriented chronic care and the appropriate use of public and private resources.

Learning Areas:
Administration, management, leadership
Chronic disease management and prevention
Program planning
Provision of health care to the public
Public health or related organizational policy, standards, or other guidelines
Systems thinking models (conceptual and theoretical models), applications related to public health

Learning Objectives:
1. Explain the process by which all stakeholders in Cuyahoga County committed to access to care came together to plan a county-wide access program. 2. Describe the access program process, including development, implementation and evaluation. 3. Discuss early program results, scheduled for implementation second quarter 2010.

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

Qualified on the content I am responsible for because: I am qualified to present because I am Chair of the Cuyahoga Health Access Partnership and Director of the Department of Public Health & Research at the Cleveland Clinic.
Any relevant financial relationships? No

I agree to comply with the American Public Health Association Conflict of Interest and Commercial Support Guidelines, and to disclose to the participants any off-label or experimental uses of a commercial product or service discussed in my presentation.

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