Health Center Advocacy: Creating a Culture of Advocacy

Transcription

1 Health Center Advocacy: Creating a Culture of Advocacy Mississippi Primary Care Association Dorian Wanzer June 2, 2017

2 What is Advocacy? Expressing your voice in support of a cause or mission, such as the Health Center mission, by spreading the word and taking action.

3 Why is Advocacy Important? True change rarely comes from the halls of Congress alone." Dr. Paula A. Johnson, CHI Gala 2015

4 Building a Culture of Advocacy

5 Building a Culture of Advocacy Changing the culture and attitude from within the health center, recognizing advocacy as a critical and mandatory component to our daily work and planning. Making a commitment to doing the work to build and organize our grassroots in order to fully realize the potential of our grassroots power. Growth and recognition of grassroots advocacy and effectiveness the same way other critical skills and programs are recognized for health center staff and boards.

6 Building a Culture of Advocacy Establish a Health Center Advocacy Coordinator/Committee Create an advocacy plan Incorporate advocacy into meeting agendas Involve the board of directors Recruit your colleagues Host a National Health Center Week event Educate and engage elected officials Get active on social media

7 Advocacy Coordinator/Committee Designating an individual at your health center as the advocacy coordinator or point person will help ensure regular communications with all staff about important Action Alerts and policy updates. If you would rather share the work among multiple staff rather than a single individual, consider creating an advocacy committee instead.

8 Advocacy Plan An advocacy coordinator or committee can manage the standing advocacy plan. The plan can outline reporting, goals, board engagement, and more and can be shared or referenced with there are calls to action and report outs with the broader team.

9 Advocacy Plan Template Making Advocacy Organizational Priority Board Resolution Strategic Plan Data Analysis Advocacy Committee HR Policies: On-boarding New & Existing Staff Statement of nonpartisanship Social media policy Staff activities during election season Board & Staff Meetings Staff Responsibilities (CEO & Others) Clear Goals & Expectations Operationalizing Advocacy Leadership Models the Way Staff Engagement Training Opportunities Responding to Calls to Action Using Technology for Advocacy Social Media Policies Recruiting Plan(s) Clear Goals & Expectations Engaging the Community in Advocacy Patients Partners Influencers Media Elected Officials Other National Health Center Week & Observances Staffing Resources Goals & Expectations Reporting, Revisions & Status Updates Benchmarking Frequency Recognition Celebration

10 Involve Board of Directors It is important for all levels of health center leadership to recognize and acknowledge the importance of advocacy Involve BOD in advocacy work are passing a resolution on advocacy and/or creating a board advocacy committee (or inviting board members to be part of your staff advocacy committee, if you have one).

11 Incorporating Advocacy Into Meeting Agendas Advocacy should be a priority. If there is a monthly/weekly staff meeting, make sure that is a standing item. An advocacy coordinator can share status updates, calls to action, and progress with the broader team. Don t wait until there is a crisis or a major opportunity.

12 Recruitment In Person

13 Recruitment Online

14 Establish Advocacy Goals To win To positively Impact Advocacy Targets To build an Ongoing Capability To involve your board and staff To involve the community

15 Establish Advocacy Metrics What is your relationship with elected officials and staff Can someone get the target on the phone? Can you get the target to your center & how often? How often is the center in the media? What is your following on social media? How many local organizations/elected officials do something CONCRETE to support you? How many grassroots advocates do you have? How active are they and how were they recruited?

16 Participate in NHCW Find events in your city Post your Events Invite Community Members and Elected Officials

17 Social Media for Advocacy Keep the content relevant and fresh Keep your message short and sweet Make the message relatable Provide visual elements Post regularly Create custom hashtags Provide Social Media Tool Kits for your members or partners Ask others to share and retweet Keep your branding consistent Push your audience towards your website Promote your events and programs Provide bilingual content Encourage interaction from your audience

18 Social Media for Advocacy

19 #valuechcs Social Media Campaign Share Stories on Social Media!

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21 ACE Program- We Want Mississippi!

22 ACE Program What is an ACE? A Health Center that has achieved certain measures of advocacy success and demonstrated ongoing commitment to advocacy by making it an organizational priority. In addition to creating a true culture of advocacy at the Health Center, including operationalizing advocacy practices and creating supporting infrastructure, ACEs are actively engaged and involved with NACHC and federal policy issues, as well as their state Primary Care Association and key state-level policy issues impacting Health Centers and their patients.

23 ACE Program How does my Health Center become an ACE? 1) Complete the online form OR download a hard copy. Use the supporting resources 2) NACHC will review checklist and supporting documentation; checklists missing items will not be approved. 3) NACHC will contact submitter with any questions or to confirm approval as an ACE.

24 Three achievement levels: bronze, silver, and gold complete the ACE checklist to apply! CHCs that have achieved certain measures of advocacy success and demonstrate ongoing commitment to advocacy Is your Health Center an ACE? NACHC partners with PCAs to support ACEs in each state ACEs receive national recognition and other benefits for their advocacy efforts

25 Policy Updates & New Action Steps

26 Timeline What We Know Now May 23: President s Budget FY18 Appropriations Process Begins Targeted Flyin: PCAs and Key Contacts July 3-7: Congress in Recess Debt Ceiling? Aug 1-31: Congress in Recess August 27-29: NACHC CHI CHC Fund Expires CHIP Funding Expires THCGME, NHSC Funding Expires May June July August September Sept. 30 Week of May 24: AHCA CBO Score Senate AHCA Consideration Begins Senate Aiming for Health Bill Passage Aug 13-19: Nat l Health Center Week End of Fiscal Year 2017 (CR, Omnibus or Shutdown) MIECHV, DSH, ~12 Other Extenders Expire

27 Health Center Funding Mandatory/Health Centers Fund/Cliff CHC Fund Extension from MACRA expires 9/30 NHSC and THCGME (also CHIP, MIECHV, DSH, more) expire at the same time. Working on extenders package Goal is at least 5 years, risk is shorter-term, esp. given possible collision with AHCA

28 Act well before September 30th to extend the Health Centers Fund for at least five years so that CHCs are able to maintain services and recruit and retain health care professionals. Health Center Funding Cliff Without action by Congress to extend the Health Centers Fund by September 30, CHCs face a 70% reduction in grant funding.

29 Medicaid and Health Centers A strong Medicaid program is critical for health centers and our patients. Our Request: Any change to Medicaid must: Ensure both coverage and continuity of access to care for health center patients, while supporting the integrated, comprehensive, and high-quality primary and preventive care services that health centers provide. Maintain patient access to care by preserving the FQHC PPS payment methodology, which ensures stability while saving Medicaid money.

30 Strengthening the Primary Care Workforce Most health centers currently struggle to recruit and retain the clinical workforce necessary to fully meet patient needs. Our Request: Fully fund the National Health Service Corps by renewing funding at levels necessary to provide scholarships and loan repayment to thousands more clinicians. Invest in Teaching Health Centers by providing necessary funding to preserve current programs and put the THC model on a path to long-term sustainability and growth.

31 President Trump s FY18 Budget A Very Mixed Bag for Health Centers: First step in FY18 budget process long way to go Would fix the Health Center Funding Cliff, extending CHC, NHSC and THCGME funding through 2019 Limits federal contributions to state Medicaid programs - Cuts at least $610 billion over ten years Provides $9.9 Billion for HRSA in FY18 Cuts $459.9 Million from FY17 budget Strong focus on program integrity of 340B Program Price verification and better technology

32 The American Health Care Act Moves Forward Refresher: basics of House bill Eliminates ACA individual mandate, changes ACA subsidies from income-based to age-based Major changes/cuts to Medicaid: Expansion rollback, per-capita cap CBO Estimate: 23 million people would lose coverage by 2026 Pulled from consideration for lack of votes in late March April late changes pushed the bill over the finish line: Meadows-MacArthur Amendment: allows state waiver of Essential Health Benefits, Community Rating requirements from ACA Upton Amendment: additional $8 billion to State high-risk pools to cover those priced out of the Marketplace. Meadows-MacArthur added Freedom Caucus support, Upton got just enough moderates Bill passed on May 4 Premature Celebration? Bill faces very complicated dynamic and tight margins in the Senate

33 TAKE ACTION: Make the Case for Health Centers NEW Critical Action Steps on the Federal, State and Local Level to Make the Case for your Health Center #1: Engage your elected officials #2: Participate in National Health Center Week #3: Build Advocacy Capacity

34 Engaging Legislators your Senators regarding the AHCA Health Centers coordinate with PCAs for statewide letters Submit a Letter to the Editor or Opinion Editorial voicing impacts and concerns relative to the AHCA. AHCA Concerns & Priorities Letters In person Meetings with Governor Collect health center stories

35 Invite Elected Officials to NHCW

36 Building Advocacy Capacity Create a health center advocacy plan that encompasses localized goals, priorities and metrics for success Recruit at least 50 new advocates to continue building your health center advocate network and empower you community to stand up for your health center. Template Advocacy Work Plan Sign up new advocates online Hard copy advocate sign up form Get active on social media

37 Remember Creating culture of advocacy at your health center through planning, legislative outreach, social media engagement and board engagement are the keys to becoming an Advocacy Center of Excellence Building advocacy capacity will allow your health center to participate in the necessary action steps and further create a strong culture of advocacy at your health center

38 Stay Connected with NACHC s Advocacy Efforts grassroots@nachc.org

39 Questions? Dorian Wanzer Grassroots Advocacy Manager, Outreach & Communications NACHC Public Policy and Research Division 1400 Eye St., NW, Suite 910 Washington DC,