Welcome Sarah and Jamie!
I’m excited to introduce two new members of our team who bring direct clinical experience to our policy and quality work.
As we expand our work on evidence-based, innovative models of care and payment reform, we have a growing need for team members with direct experience at the bedside and designing and implementing payment models in a clinical setting.
That is why we are thrilled to welcome Sarah Wolf, MAS, BSN, RN to our policy team. Sarah will help us expand our payment and care delivery reform work, which started with Medicaid 2.0 and continues today. With Sarah’s help, the policy team will be leading implementation of maternity and early intervention models that improve maternal and early childhood health outcomes. Stay tuned for more details. I encourage you to read Sarah’s Take Five interview, in which she describes her experience supporting parents struggling to pay their bills while also caring for a very sick child. Sarah was looking to work on policies that improve the health care system and found kindred thinkers at the Quality Institute.
We’re also celebrating adding to the Quality Institute team Jamie Agunsday, MA, MSN, RNC-OB, FAWHONN, a seasoned labor and delivery nurse well known to many in the state from her tireless and critical work on the NJ Mortality Review Committee. Jamie’s passion for respectful care and patient autonomy comes across in her Take Five interview. Jamie is joining our Quality team and will support our learning collaborative work, including TeamBirth and AIM bundle implementation.
The Work To Come
Children’s Mental Health
The FY ‘27 budget made substantial investments in Children’s Mental Health services. Following the June release of our Children’s Mental Health Mapping Report, we look forward to the implementation phase of the work. In our landscape analysis and mapping we highlighted the need for data collection, planning, and specific interventions. The Quality Institute received funding to work with the state to coordinate implementation of the Children’s Mental Health Mapping Report recommendations.
Maternal Health
We were thrilled to see that the FY ‘27 budget continued to make Maternal and Reproductive Health a priority. In addition to our learning collaboratives, we’ll be releasing materials and direct support for hospitals, community-based organizations, and health care practices to continue implementing reforms laid out in the Maternity Action Plan (NJ MAP) including how to self-assess a health system’s progress on advancing birth equity and how to create and sustain Perinatal Community Advisory Boards.
Primary Care, Integrated, and Public Health Initiatives
At the Quality Institute, along with all our members, we are very concerned about the federal funding cuts to health care. Despite all the efforts we know will be made, and that we will support, many residents will lose access to coverage, care, and healthy food. With these cuts looming, it is even more critical that the state ensures that people receive essential primary care services and that the state continues to support the public health system, which acts as a safety net for many of our most vulnerable residents. Budget actions, including funding the implementation of the single license for primary care, mental health care and substance use disorder treatment; advancing workforce development by funding primary care residency positions in family medicine and internal medicine; and funding free clinics are all positive developments. We will be supporting this work and encourage Medicaid, SHBP, and commercial insurers to better support primary care and behavioral health by adjusting reimbursement rates to ensure there is true access to care.
HR-1 Response
The changes to Medicaid via HR-1 are a man-made disaster. Like Hurricane Sandy and COVID-19, the state must ready itself for an all of government approach and non-government entities must help. We look forward to working with all of you to amplify the state’s messaging, to help people remain enrolled, and mitigate harm caused by loss of essential health care. We are planning for this work and will be calling upon our members and partners for help. This is a Jersey Strong moment.
Affordability
Lastly, I think we all agree that we must address health care affordability. As a small employer, I know first-hand that it is not sustainable to have employer-sponsored health insurance costs continue to rise by 10 to 20 percent, or more, annually. We arrived at this point because we have taken state regulated markets for granted for too long. These markets provide the only guaranteed source of insurance to any individual or group, but they are rapidly shrinking in size and becoming unaffordable even for catastrophic level coverage. Likewise, the State Health Benefit Program faces similar challenges. The approaches to address these problems are known and can be implemented, but they require public and health care leaders to commit to this greater good, make difficult policy choices and practical compromises. Only then will we be able to make meaningful change and bend the cost curve in a downward direction. We look forward to supporting those efforts.
I look forward to hearing from you and working with you on these improvements to care, access, and affordability.