Health Reform: Prevention Workgroup

The Health Reform Prevention Workgroup identified funding opportunities for prevention and wellness opportunities that will help the state meet the goals of North Carolina’s Prevention Action Plan, and examined options to develop a wellness initiative for Medicaid recipients.

Report | Executive Summary | Presentation: Impact of Affordable Care Act on North Carolina
Co-Chairs
Jeffrey Engel, MD
NC State Health Director, Division of Public Health
North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services
Laura Gerald, MD, MPH
Executive Director
North Carolina Health and Wellness Trust Fund
Project Director  Sharon Schiro
Project Director
North Carolina Institute of Medicine
Workgroup Overview

There are many provisions of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) and potential new funding to improve population health and promote wellness. For example, the ACA creates a new Prevention and Public Health Fund. Some of the funding will be used to support competitive grants, demonstrations, and pilots dealing with prevention; education and outreach; maternal and child health; immunizations; worksite wellness; and public health surveillance. The ACA also expands public and private coverage for preventive services and immunizations. The Prevention work group will examine these provisions to ensure that North Carolina takes advantage of new funding opportunities and other provisions to improve population health.

As part of this effort, the Prevention Workgroup will work to:

  • Identify funding opportunities for prevention and wellness programs

  • Identify communities of greatest need

  • Encourage collaboration in funding opportunities


Information about the Affordable Care Act

General information about health reform including presentations, a summary of funding opportunities, and helpful links is available here.

Workgroup Background

The overall goal of this effort is to identify the decisions the state must make in implementing health reform. The Advisory Group and workgroups also plan on identifying potential funding opportunities to ensure that we are aware of, and take advantage of, any potential funding opportunity that will help us improve population health, access to care, and health care quality. We want to build on North Carolina's existing strengths and ensure that the decisions made in implementing the federal legislation serve the best interests of the state as a whole.

The effort will be led by Lanier Cansler, Secretary of the NC Department of Health and Human Services, and Wayne Goodwin, Commissioner of the NC Department of Insurance. The new federal health reform legislation will have significant impact on the way that health care is delivered in North Carolina.

To help the state prepare for these changes, eight different workgroups are being established:Prevention, Safety Net, Health Professional Workforce, Health Insurance Exchange and Insurance Oversight, Medicaid, New Models of Care, Quality, Fraud and Abuse.

This planning effort will be led by an Overall Advisory Group that will help coordinate the work of each of these workgroups. Each workgroup will meet approximately one time per month from August 2010-August 2011 to review specific sections of the legislation and examine any new funding opportunities that are made available as part of this legislation.