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 News & EventsNew Issue Brief on Adolescent DepressionNIHCM Foundation is pleased to announce the release of a new Issue Brief, Improving Early Identification & Treatment of A... Audio Archive- Identifying and Treating Maternal Depression WebinarNIHCM Foundation hosted a webinar, "Identifying and Treating Maternal Depression: Strategies & Considerations for He... New Expert Voices: Hospital Market ConsolidationNIHCM Foundation is pleased to release a new edition of Expert Voices, "Hospital Market Consolidation: Trends and Conseq... New Expert Voices: Uninsured and Eligible for CoverageNIHCM Foundation is pleased to release a new edition of Expert Voices, "Uninsured and Eligible for Coverage: Underlying ... Webinar: Identifying and Treating Maternal DepressionNIHCM Foundation invites you to participate in an important webinar:Identifying and Treating Maternal Depression:Strategies a... New Expert Voices: Why America Spends More on Health CareNIHCM Foundation is pleased to release a new edition of Expert Voices, "Why America Spends More on Health Care", by... |
MCAH Spotlight: Sharing Health Plan Initiatives on Maternal & Child HealthThe Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association (BCBSA) recently launched its Pediatric Obesity and Diabetes Prevention Pilot Program in five states in an effort to help reduce childhood obesity and prevent future cases of diabetes. The pilot program consists of an easy-to-use obesity and diabetes prevention toolkit designed for physicians that has convenient physician reference materials, as well as educational and behavior changing tools to share with patients and parents. The toolkit, developed in consultation with the American Diabetes Association and the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP), encourages healthy choices and behaviors and will be piloted in collaboration with five BCBSA companies in Texas, New Mexico, Mississippi, North Carolina and Kansas City. BCBSA and the Blue Cross and Blue Shield companies involved in the pilot will collect feedback and findings from physicians through discussions and surveys. Upon conclusion of the pilot, BCBSA will use the findings to create a nationally-available toolkit to assist physicians, children and families in reducing childhood obesity and preventing future cases of diabetes. Read the official press release to learn more about these efforts. Three health plans, Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts, Harvard Pilgrim Health Care and Tufts Health Plan, along with Massachusetts' Medicaid program, have pledged to collectively contribute $10 million to a fund that will enable Children's Hospital Boston to accelerate pilot programs aimed at providing lower cost and higher quality care. The Hospital has agreed in exchange to limit increases in fees it charges the insurers next year. The hospital will curb its rate of fee increases for doctor visits, tests and surgical procedures between 50 and 75 percent in the coming year. These efforts are all part of a larger push to control rises in pediatric health care. Read the official press release here. Blue Cross Blue Shield of Arizona is offering fifth-grade teachers across the state an opportunity to win one of five $5,000 grants to promote fitness among their students and combat childhood obesity. The Walk On! Challenge is a free 28-day exercise challenge offered annually in February designed by Blue Cross Blue Shield of Arizona to motivate fifth-graders across the state to include exercise in their daily routines. Teachers have the opportunity to win one of the grants by registering their classroom for the program on the Walk On! website, allowing them to extend the program beyond the month of February. All children who complete the challenge (which includes a full 60 minutes of exercise every day for the month) will receive a reward (a drawstring backpack) and be entered into a drawing for prizes including iPod Shuffles and Wii Fit game consoles. Read the official press release here. CareFirst BlueCross BlueShield has issued a grant of nearly $100,000 to the Summit Health Institute for Research and Education (SHIRE), Inc. to fund a five- month paid program for 40 young people ages 15 to 20 in D.C. Wards 7 and 8 to help prevent the spread of HIV and AIDS and childhood obesity. The SHIRE Teen Health Educators Program provides training in HIV/AIDS, nutrition and health education, advocacy and career guidance. After completing the education part of the program, SHIRE teen health educators showcase their knowledge in community health workshops and a live theatre production designed for 12 to 19 year olds living in Wards 7 and 8. The program works in partnership with Mayor Adrian M. Fenty's 2009 Summer Youth Employment Program (SYEP), and recruitment is being coordinated with community based organizations, including: Ward 8 ANC leaders, the Childhood Obesity Prevention Collaborative, Howard University, Maya Angelou School in Ward 7, and the DC Summer Youth Employment Job Fair. Aetna, Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts, Blue Cross Blue Shield of North Carolina and WellPoint have joined the Alliance for a Healthier Generation's Healthcare Initiative (Alliance Healthcare Initiative). The Alliance Healthcare Initiative is a collaborative effort by insurers, employers and national medical associations to combat childhood obesity through the provision of comprehensive health benefits for the prevention, assessment and treatment of childhood obesity. These benefits include at least four follow up visits with their primary care provider and four visits with a registered dietitian per year for eligible Children. The Alliance aims to provide more than 6.2 million children with access to this healthcare benefit within the next three years. See the Alliance for a Healthier Generation's website for more information. Starting in January 2010, Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Oklahoma will offer an autism benefit to insured groups. Benefit enhancements are expected to include evaluation and management procedures, speech, physical and occupational therapies. For more information see http://www.bcbsok.com/autism_benefits.html . Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Minnesota is investing up to $650,000 in additional funds from its tobacco settlement to promote healthier eating and improve health in the state next year. Blue Cross is awarding eight "Healthy Eating Minnesota" contracts to communities to support a wide range of healthy eating strategies. For example, the Dakota County Public Health Department will work with Blue Cross to assess and improve healthy food policies in five schools districts reaching approximately 31,000 staff and students. Additionally, a media campaign called "Every Helping Helps" has been launched to double the percentage of Minnesota residents who eat at least five servings of fruits and vegetables per day. For more information on Healthy Eating Minnesota see http://www.bcbs.com/news/plans/blue-cross-teams-up-with.html. Blue Cross Blue Shield of Arizona is stepping up its efforts to encourage Arizona youth to be more physically active through walking by introducing an enhanced version of its popular Walk On! program for 2009 that includes more incentives for participants and easier reporting for teachers. Walk On! is an innovative school-based activity program designed to motivate kids in grades K-8 statewide to incorporate exercise into their daily routines throughout the school year. The Walk On! Challenge component of the program challenges fifth-graders statewide to compete for prizes by completing 10,000 steps every day in February. 2009 will mark the successful program's fourth year. More information on the Walk On! program is available at http://walkonaz.com/. Highmark Blue Shield has awarded $33,250 to four nonprofit organizations in Central Pennsylvania and the Lehigh Valley to support meal programs for underprivileged children and adults. According to the Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture, nearly 1.2 million Pennsylvanians, or almost 10 percent of the state's population, live in households that are at risk for hunger. Highmark awarded grants to Central Pennsylvania Food Bank, CHANNELS Food Rescue, New Bethany Ministries, and Second Harvest Food Bank to help each organization increase its available food supply and expand its services to reach a greater population of children and families. For more information see http://www.bcbs.com/news/plans/highmark-blue-shield-awards.html. The Blue & You Foundation for a Healthier Arkansas has awarded a total of $1,056,320 in grants to 21 health improvement programs in Arkansas for 2009. Grants with a maternal and child health focus include: Beebe Public Schools, Boston Mountain Rural Health Center, Boys and Girls Club of Central Arkansas, and NEA Clinic Charitable Foundation for afterschool programs promoting physical activity, healthy nutrition, and health education; Museum of Discovery for providing sexual health education courses to teachers and students in grades 4-8 to help reduce teen pregnancy and sexually transmitted disease; Community Clinic Rogers Medical to provide pediatric medical services to 1,300 low-income and uninsured children; and Crittenden Regional Hospital to provide prenatal and postpartum home visits by doulas to assess needs and barriers to care for pregnant women. Additional information including a complete listing of the 21 grants awarded is available at http://www.bcbs.com/news/plans/blue-you-foundation.html . WellPoint, Inc., the WellPoint Foundation and the X PRIZE Foundation have teamed up to develop a $10 million or more competition to generate new ways to address the nation's serious health care system challenges. WellPoint and the X PRIZE Foundation will solicit participation from employers, health care providers, consumers, government partners and other interested parties to develop competition guidelines that reflect the health care industry's most pressing challenges. The award amount, competition rules and guidelines are expected to be finalized in early 2009. WellPoint will test the selected finalists' entries in its state markets, in order to evaluate their ability to result in viable, creative and achievable health care system changes. To learn more about the competition and to participate in the development of the prize, please visit www.xprize.org/wellpoint. |
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