Health Care Access

BRHPC is acting as facilitator to the Health Care Access Committee, established as a committee of the Coordinating Council of Broward. The purpose of the committee is to improve access to health care for the residents of Broward County, through the establishment of outcomes and indicators, which have been and will continue to be implemented and measured throughout the next several years (www.brhpc.org/benchmarks). The members of the committee represent various facilities, agencies and/or departments within the county.

This past year the committee has updated both the Broward Benchmarks and the Health section of the Children’s Strategic Plan. The committee continues to set goals for Broward County in many areas of health including but not limited to maternal and child health, mental health, health care access, primary care and dental care. The committee also spent time looking at enrollment in Medicaid and other programs to assure Broward County is working to enroll all those eligible.

Trauma

Since September, 1992, Broward Regional Health Planning Council has been staffing the Trauma Advisory Committee. The Trauma Plan developed under this initial contract was accepted and approved by the Florida EMS Office, resulting in Broward County having the fifth approved Trauma Network in the state. The contract currently in place with Broward County provides for staff support of the Trauma Advisory Committee, which has as its main responsibility the updating of the Trauma Plan for Broward County and acting in an advisory capacity to the Trauma Agency.

Medicaid Reform

Florida's 1115 Medicaid Reform Waiver is a comprehensive demonstration project designed to improve the value of the Medicaid delivery system by coupling the increased use of managed care principles with such innovative approaches as customized benefit packages, opt-out provisions, and health-related incentives or enhanced benefits for beneficiaries. The demonstration was implemented in Broward and Duval counties on July 1, 2006. Key components of Medicaid Reform include: comprehensive Choice Counseling; Customized Benefit Packages; Enhanced Benefits for participating in healthy behaviors; Risk Adjusted Premiums based on enrollee health status; Catastrophic Component of the premium (i.e., state reinsurance to encourage development of provider service networks and health maintenance organizations in rural and underserved areas of the State); and Low-Income Pool.

The University of Florida is the evaluator for Medicaid Reform in Broward County. The Broward Regional Health Planning Council has contracted with the University of Florida to provide information about the local implementation and success of Medicaid Reform in Broward County. For more information please see http://ahca.myflorida.com/Medicaid/medicaid_reform/index.shtml.