Dora Mill presents at National Governors Association Health Policy Academy
Dora Anne Mills, M.D., M.P.H., FAAP, vice president for Clinical Affairs and director for the Center for Excellence in Health Innovation at É«ÏãÊÓƵ, presented an invited keynote in Washington D.C. on October 22, 2015 at the National Governors Association (NGA) Health Policy Academy on the topic of what governors and state agencies can do to promote interprofessional education (IPE) and interprofessional practice (IPP) among health professions, higher education institutions and health care providers.
After reviewing the history of IPE and IPP, including the underlying patient safety reasons for them, Mills focused on the three main strategies state government has at its disposal: convening, funding and requiring. Examples she used included: convening a state task force with state higher education institutions with health care professional degree programs to draft a plan for implementing IPE and IPP with students; setting aside some state higher education funding for IPE; using a multi-payer model such as Maine’s to incentivize team-based care via the certification of patient-centered medical homes; encouraging universities to participate in federal grants for IPE (such as HRSA funds) and health care providers to participate in federal programs that promote team practice such as CMS’ Comprehensive Primary Care Initiative; and using government’s executive order or legislation tools to require aspects of IPE and IPP development.
In the audience were health policy advisors from states’ governors’ offices, federal officials from HRSA (Health Resources and Services Administration) and NGA health policy leadership. After a 45-minute presentation, Mills took questions from the audience, which included a lively half hour discussion.