Southeast Regional Asthma Summit Addresses Asthma Care and Home Interventions

Attendees listen intently to panel discussions.

Nearly 100 attendees received updates.

The Southeast Regional Asthma Summit in Atlanta was attended by over 100 participants from multiple federal, state and local agencies and began with inspiring remarks from Ed Jennings, Jr., the Regional Administrator for Region IV of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, then moved briskly to a panel featuring federal and local leaders including HUD, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Georgia Department of Public Health, which best describes the high-level commitment and leadership support of these organizations, while demonstrating collaboration to the issue of home interventions at the federal and state level.

Heather McTeer Toney, Sharon L. Ricks, Ginger L. Chew, Peter Ashley and Jean O'Connor helped attendees understand the current national and state commitment to engaging in action and improving asthma outcomes through the promotion of comprehensive asthma care, in-home asthma interventions and financial reimbursement for services.

Karen Farrington, Florida Department of Health, and Francesca Lopez, Georgia Department of Health, then assisted attendees in elevating their understanding of the asthma disparities taking place in the Southeast Region. Both speakers provided insight surrounding the need for asthma interventions and services, based on the present disparities in various states. The discussion offered information surrounding each State's approach on asthma management along with impactful data surrounding the burden of asthma within each area.

Amanda Reddy, National Center for Healthy Housing, then described the reimbursement landscape to summit attendees. Her presentation shared the results of a nationwide survey that was conducted by the National Center for Healthy housing to understand the rapidly evolving landscape of home-based asthma services, and described some of the various mechanisms for coverage.

During the afternoon, a number of panel discussions took place including a panel on "Model Home Asthma Intervention Programs." This panel included Susan Steppe, Le Bonheur Children's Hospital, Kevin Kennedy, Children's Mercy Hospitals and Clinics, and Francis Martini, Blue Cross Blue Shield Tennessee. The learning objectives of this panel included providing attendees with information on identifying and replicating best practices from successful model programs, including how these programs were developed and the necessary components/partnerships. In addition, speakers described the health and environmental outcomes that merit the need for in-home interventions. They explained the value propositions, ROIs and business cases that support the delivery of in-home interventions and surfaced new strategies for incorporating in-home intervations into existing programs.

Following this panel, "Perspectives on Successful Referral Systems for Improving In-Home Intervention Outcomes" was held. This panel provided the audience with an opportunity to understand various strategies for identification of high risk asthma population and effective referral to home-based services. In addition, speakers highlighted the process of identifying community partners to assist in reaching target populations and delivering services. Finally, this panel detailed how to anticipate and address challenges related to achieving successful referrals.

To close the day, Dr. Joy Hsu, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and Amanda Reddy shared information surrounding "Where Financial Sustainability Exists." Dr. Hsu addressed the group to discuss financial sustainability and the 6/18 initiative. She described the efforts taking place under 6/18 and shared valuable examples of funded in-home interventions in other states that have yielded positive short-term returns on investment. Ms. Reddy's remarks focused on key insights surrounding building the Business Case that funders and partners want and need to hear, she also encouraged attendees to reach out to NCHH for training and technical assistance. Attendees were empowered to convene task forces and participants were left equipped with the resources to make valuable progress towards sustainable financing.

Source document - Southeast Regional Asthma Summit, May 17, 2015, Summary Report

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