242407 Selected evaluation results from an innovative health access plan: The Healthy Howard Health Plan

Wednesday, November 2, 2011: 9:06 AM

Eileen M. McDonald, MS , Health, Behavior & Society, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Baltimore, MD
Shannon Frattaroli, PhD, MPH , Health Policy and Management, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Baltimore, MD
Elizabeth Edsall-Kromm, PhD , Department of Health, Behavior and Society, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Baltimore, MD
Xia Ma, MS , Department of Health Policy and Management, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Baltimore
David Holtgrave, PhD , Department of Health, Behavior and Society, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Baltimore, MD
Introduction: The Healthy Howard Health Plan (HHHP) is an innovative approach to providing access to health care in Howard County, Maryland. Health coaching is mandatory for HHHP members. We designed and conducted a comprehensive evaluation of HHHP.

Purpose: The main aims of the evaluation are to describe: 1) the demographics of HHHP applicants; 2) the demographics, health status, and plan participation among HHHP enrollees; 3) members' experiences with health coaching; and 4) the impacts of health coaching on members.

Methods: HHHP enrollee data were collected via several sources: 1) an electronic application to determine eligibility; 2) a health risk assessment (HRA) to obtain basic health information and identify risk factors; 3) a Health Action Plan (HAP), completed with the health coaching; and 4) other tools to document satisfaction, activation and progress. HHHP staff de-identified data, assigned unique IDs and sent data to the evaluation team for analysis.

Results: HHHP enrollees were similar in demographic characteristics to the overall county population. HRAs revealed information about enrollees' unmet health needs, most of which were similar to the larger state and national populations. HAPs revealed six major health goal areas: smoking, exercise, nutrition, weight, managing a health condition, and social factors. Members' progress on these goals and engagement in coaching will be presented.

Conclusions: Evaluation results reveal not only important findings about the HHHP population but also may provide important insights regarding those who will likely gain access to care on or before 2014.

Learning Areas:
Administer health education strategies, interventions and programs
Administration, management, leadership
Assessment of individual and community needs for health education
Chronic disease management and prevention
Conduct evaluation related to programs, research, and other areas of practice

Learning Objectives:
To describe the health status, sociodemographic profile and initial health care needs of a recently uninsured population enrolled in a county-based public-private health care access program; To describe plan participants' engagement in health coaching, including health goals developed and progress made.

Keywords: Health Care Access, Evaluation

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

Qualified on the content I am responsible for because: I have submitted abstracts and presented similar work for more than a decade and I was involved in the evaluation of this activity.
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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