Abstract
Sustainable Financing for Asthma Education and Home Environmental Trigger Remediation: Lessons Learned from the Field
Joel Ervice
Public Health Institute, Oakland, CA
APHA's 2018 Annual Meeting & Expo (Nov. 10 - Nov. 14)
Asthma is a common chronic condition affecting over 25 million people across the country. Unfortunately, those suffering the greatest asthma burden—low-income communities and communities of color—often lack access to the very things that will help keep their asthma under control. Asthma education and environmental trigger remediation are two of the four vital components of the national clinical guidelines for the management of asthma, and are proven to improve health outcomes and reduce healthcare utilization costs, typically in a very short amount of time. Still, access to these services – particularly for low-income and minority patients for whom the asthma burden is high – is far too limited and inconsistent.
With the overall goal of ensuring that children have access to asthma-related services they need to be healthy, advocates have long recognized the need for sustainable financing for asthma education and home environmental trigger assessment and remediation. In recent years, the promise of transformations to the health care system, including a greater emphasis on prevention, has provided more concrete opportunities to implement the wide variety of financing mechanisms needed to both sustain existing programs and bring these types of programs to scale.
Building on this promise, public health, community and government leaders across the nation have advanced policies and programs while sharing lessons learned. In this presentation, Regional Asthma Management & Prevention (RAMP) will share lessons learned based on advocacy efforts in California and connections with stakeholders in select states across the country. Sharing these insights will hopefully contribute to a roadmap for success and stimulate efforts in other states.
Advocacy for health and health education Chronic disease management and prevention Implementation of health education strategies, interventions and programs Public health or related public policy