At the 2024 Hawaii Health Policy Conference, federal and local leaders met to provide attendees with national policy updates, including initiatives to increase the healthcare workforce and workforce education, and how to broadly support a wider range of health-related social needs (HRSNs) to improve health equity.
Jeffrey Reynoso, PhD, Region 9 director for the US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), works in California, Nevada, Arizona, and Hawaii, and said much of the focus on improving healthcare from the federal side is lowering prescription drug costs through the Inflation Reduction Act.
“Our priorities at the department … are lowering the cost of healthcare and increasing access, improving behavioral health access and outcomes, so actually behavioral health is a priority to this White House as part of the president’s agenda.”
— Reynoso
Access to prescription drugs, however, cannot occur without Hawaiians having access to providers. Last July, HHS launched the HHS Health Workforce Initiative to support and grow the healthcare workforce through programs and activities through $2.7 billion in investments. He reiterated the importance of investing in behavioral health.
“Behavioral health is health, period. I think coming out of the pandemic and now … we know that there [are] enormous needs out there,” Reynoso said.
He said HHS has been thinking deeply about how to more broadly support HRSNs to improve health equity across the nation. Many healthcare professionals and leaders agree that housing is healthcare, and Reynoso highlighted how the federal administration launched the ALL Inside Initiative, known as “All In.” The overarching goal of this initiative is to reduce the national rate of homelessness by 25 percent by 2025.
As part of this initiative, HHS is providing technical assistance to assist communities with leveraging federal programs, including Medicaid, to cover housing-related supportive services, in addition to behavioral healthcare. Reynoso said it’s important to stretch Medicaid dollars to address these types of social needs, and how there are many innovative ideas taking place in this space.
Aimee Grace, MD, director of the Office of Strategic Health Initiatives at the University of Hawaii (UH), brought up the UHealthy Hawaii Initiative, which works to leverage the university to improve healthcare and outcomes in the state. The initiative’s priorities are ensuring a well-rounded and strong statewide healthcare workforce, using innovation and discoveries to improve and extend lives, promoting healthier families and communities, and advancing health in all policies. Grace co-leads two centers, including the UH Rural Health Research and Policy Center, which is funded through HHS.
“What we aim to do is translate community needs into policy solutions,” Grace said.
The other center she coleads is the UH Center for Indigenous Innovation and Health Equity.
“We’re trying to advance traditional and cultural practices to improve health for Native Hawaiian Pacific Islander populations.”
— Grace
She listed the most pressing healthcare issues in Hawaii: workforce shortages, rural access, health disparities, public health priorities, healthcare costs, a lack of housing, infant mortality, and the Maui wildfire response.
She also emphasized the effects the Medicare reimbursement rates have on the workforce, including a 3.4 percent cut to providers this past January. Grace said for years, reimbursement rates have been inadequate and hopes to see federal policy changes in that regard.