My career has focused on the intersection of patient and family lived experience and policy development and implementation, with a strong orientation to effectiveness, efficiency and equity. Many developments happening right now speak to these issues and highlight how we are often wasting time, money, and people’s health and life. Rising recognition that we must invest in mental health and substance use is rightly focused both on access to a range of interventions and in building a diverse workforce to meet the need. At the same, time, burgeoning innovation in this space challenges our assumptions about how to deliver care and support, and how to measure impact and outcomes that matter to the people being served. Like many, I’m also on a steady path of education and understanding about racism and its impact on all aspects of our health system. Data that continues to highlight our inattention and even complicit inaction is both stunning and motivating. I hope that this edition empowers you to challenge assumptions, processes, policies, and people that are motivated to preserve the status quo. That is no longer a defensible goal.

Last week, I continued my 2022 theme of change by guiding the Innovation and Value Initiative to new executive leadership. I continue to contribute my passion for strategic thinking and stakeholder engagement to this forward-leading organization. I would love to talk with you about your goals and challenges, and how I can help you envision and implement change.

After nearly three decades of scientific research, digital mental health (DMH) is having its moment. Millions of dollars of venture capital funding are entering this space and a multitude of apps are available to consumers on commercial app marketplaces, leading to many optimistic conclusions such as that the “digital mental health genie is out of the bottle”.

Individuals who are dually eligible for Medicare and Medicaid experience higher rates of chronic illness, behavioral health conditions, and social risk factors than those who are eligible for only one program or the other. Duals are three times more likely to both report poor health than Medicare-only beneficiaries.

Following on the Lower Drug Costs Now Act (H.R.3) and the Reduced Costs and Continued Cures Act (H.R.5260), Senate Democrats have now agreed on new language seeking to rein in the prices of prescription drugs to improve access and affordability; if approved by the Senate parliamentarian, the new language would be part of a scaled-down reconciliation package dealing with health care, climate change, and other issues.

During Going Digital: Behavioral Health Tech 2022, we were fortunate to be joined by two Google Health executives, Megan Jones Bell, PsyD, and Ivor Horn, MD. Dr. Bell is the Clinical Director of Consumer and Mental Health, and Dr. Horn is the Director of Health Equity and Product Inclusion. We discussed Google Health’s strategy, how the digital health industry is changing, how to wire digital health products for inclusion, and their hope for the future of digital health.

The value-based payment crusade is now two decades old. But despite the tens of billions of dollars — perhaps hundreds of billions — spent on these programs, they have done little to improve Americans’ health or lower health care costs.

Many Americans who depend on employer-sponsored health care are managing complex, costly health conditions and face significant gaps in diagnosis and disease management across race, ethnicity and income levels, according to a new analysis from Morgan Health and NORC at the University of Chicago.

The Obama administration first issued regulations on discrimination, but the Trump administration stripped a number of protections, notably those regarding sexual orientation and gender identity.

Momentum Health Strategies

Jennifer L Bright, MPA

(703) 628 - 0534

jennifer@momentumhealthstrategies.com

www.momentumhealthstrategies.com

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