Project: - Integrating Alzheimer's Messages into Chronic Disease Program

NACDD’s Cancer Council includes representation from all four CDC-funded programs (NBCCEDP, NCCCP, CRCCP, and NPCR). Its purpose is to facilitate collaboration, share best practices, and improve communication and efficiency. Membership includes staff working in state, tribal, territorial, Pacific Island Jurisdictions (PIJ) and the district health departments or agencies. The Council provides a mechanism for each cancer program to work with other cancer programs and other chronic disease programs at various levels in their communities to effectively implement public health activities and to address primary prevention, early detection, education, and outreach, cancer survivorship, cancer surveillance and research, and use of clinical preventive services. This project supports the Council activities, including: quarterly meetings of the entire Council, meetings of the NCCCP programs, quarterly meetings of the CDC screening programs (NBCCEDP and CRCCP), regularly scheduled professional development offerings, special interest area discussions, such as communications, palliative care, and working with partners. Past member-driven workgroups include: cancer services in rural areas and the impact of health insurance reform on programs. NACDD also will support a meeting of the Council’s Executive and Steering Committees members with CDC-Division of Cancer Prevention and Control (DCPC) staff to discuss program needs and accomplishments. Scheduled meetings and webinars are recorded and made available to Council members.

Project Description: The purpose of the project is to provide innovative opportunities (educational and capacity building) for State Health Departments to address challenges related to preventing and controlling cardiovascular disease among high burden populations. Efforts will be primarily focused on challenges associated with implementation of evidence-based strategies to increase control of high blood pressure and high blood cholesterol. The project will also support communication among state epidemiology, surveillance, and evaluation staff working in chronic disease prevention. This work supports the goals of the Division for Heart Disease and Stroke Prevention (DHDSP). NACDD has been collaborating with State Health Department programs working in heart disease and stroke prevention since 1998. The NACDD Cardiovascular Health Project (CVH) provides innovative opportunities for SHDs to support health systems change and works with cardiovascular health staff and national partners to support the goals of several federal and national initiatives of the DHDSP and the CDC 6|18 Initiative. Through this proposal, NACDD proposes to continue supporting the Cardiovascular Health Network and the Epidemiology and Evaluation Collaborative through innovative modes of information-sharing such as peer network calls, webinars, fireside chats, virtual roundtables, learning communities and supporting documents to advance cardiovascular health initiatives in states and communities.

Project Description: Since 2015, NACDD and a health intelligence firm, Leavitt Partners, have been addressing the challenges of Medicaid and private payer and purchaser (employer) coverage of the National DPP lifestyle change program through funding and collaboration with the CDC’s Division of Diabetes Translation. This project, which furthers that work, will continue to make significant progress toward building capacity for State and Local Chronic Disease Programs partnering with public and private payers and purchasers to offer the National DPP lifestyle change program to people at highest risk for type 2 diabetes by: 1) supporting the incorporation of lessons learned from the Medicaid Demonstration Project into the development of sustainable coverage models in Maryland and Oregon; 2) providing intensive technical assistance to address systems challenges related to the development, implementation, and evaluation of coverage models for up to four state Medicaid agencies (states include Minnesota, New Jersey, New York and Pennsylvania); 3) leveraging public health and Medicaid partnerships through the CDC’s 6|18 initiative to provide individual and group-based technical assistance to up to six states related to the planning, implementation, and evaluation of Medicaid coverage models for the National DPP lifestyle change program (at this time states include Colorado, Kentucky, Wyoming, Michigan, and Illinois); 4) informing and mobilizing the public and private sectors by 1) coordinating with the Diabetes TA and Support team on co-leading up to four coverage-focused State Engagement Meetings (StEM 2.0s) to assist states and their public and private payers and purchasers to leverage the information in the National DPP Coverage Toolkit to make a commitment to prioritize coverage of the National DPP lifestyle change program, and 2) facilitating a Medicare DPP (MDPP) supplier community of practice. 5) continuing to build, refine, and evaluate the National DPP Coverage Toolkit; and 6) translating and disseminating practical applications of coverage models through presentations, meetings, and webinars.

Project Description: A roundtable discussion was convened on April 4, 2019 by NACDD, CDC and Leavitt Partners with public health experts, industry leaders, community-based organizations (CBOs) and service providers. The goal of the roundtable was to elicit possible solutions for CBOs offering the National Diabetes Prevention Program (National DPP) lifestyle change program to sustainably secure reimbursement from healthcare payers. During the convening potential solutions were discussed that may enable CBOs to more effectively connect to healthcare payment systems. Based on this discussion and additional intelligence gathered on the challenges that CBOs face in securing reimbursement from healthcare payment systems, it was determined NACDD, CDC and Leavitt Partners will support two demonstration projects. These projects will examine cost effective ways to provide administrative, business, data processing, and technology services to community-based organizations (CBOs) to enable third party payments for the delivery of the National DPP lifestyle change program. Specifically, the objectives of these demonstration projects are: 1) Facilitate the successful formation of two umbrella hub organizations and document lessons learned. 2) Assist a CBO or umbrella organization to become a Medicare Diabetes Prevention Program supplier. 3) Demonstrate the ability of an umbrella hub to bill and receive reimbursement from Medicare and other insurers through a technology platform and umbrella hub model.

NACDD seeks to support the chronic disease workforce in all 10 HHS Regions, implementing solutions to the escalating problems caused by chronic diseases and their risk factors by providing CBA through six strategies: 1) public health systems infrastructure; 2) leadership and workforce development; 3) data and information systems; 4) communication and information technology; 5) partnerships; and 6) programs and services. Proposed strategies and activities will address public health challenges, emerging public health trends, increasing knowledge, and other skills needed to improve capacity of the chronic disease prevention and control workforce at the state, territorial and local level. NACDD will use crosscutting, evidence-based and practice-based methods; share successful approaches; provide mentoring and skill building; and evaluate outcomes. NACDD’s target population for all technical assistance and support is aimed at public health practitioners working at the state, territorial and local levels, mainly the chronic disease workforce and those working on health equity and identified by a chronic disease workforce, such as people working in professional positions like public health practitioners, health educators, nurses, physicians, epidemiologists, evaluators, and social workers whose focus is chronic disease prevention and health promotion. NACDD’s membership and past and current technical assistance and training target audiences reflects these professionals. Short-term outcomes for this project include: 1. Improved operational capacity to evaluate, manage, and improve public health systems 2. Improved leadership capacity to identify and prioritize public health needs 3. Increased capacity of data and information systems to conduct public health monitoring and surveillance 4. Improved communication and information technology capacity to inform the public effectively and efficiently 5. Improved capacity to establish and maintain partnerships within and across sectors to create a shared vision of health 6. Improved capacity to identify, prioritize, and customize relevant programs and services to address public health needs NACDD will maximize its Members and constituents, as well as partners, to effectively reach into states and territories and requires collaboration between state-level and community-level work to enhance program success.