2023 Year in Review: Advancing Health Equity in North Carolina
Foundation for Health Leadership & Innovation
Building leadership, shaping practice, affecting policy, and driving innovation through collaborative partnerships.
Last year was a big one for North Carolina. After a decade of advocacy, as of this past December, Medicaid Expansion is finally in effect—no small feat—even though it is just one step on the road toward healthy and equitable communities. This policy victory will continue to play a major role as FHLI advocates for systems-level changes to improve the health status of all North Carolinians.
2023 was also a big year for FHLI, and we’re reflecting on everything we accomplished alongside partner organizations and communities across our state. Learn more about how we advanced health equity in North Carolina and what we have in store for 2024:
?? Roadmap to Innovation?
?? Bertie County Integrated Behavioral Health Network?
?? Bringing National Rural Health Day to Rural North Carolina?
?? Adding Maternal Health to the FHLI Portfolio?
?? Medicaid Expansion?
?? National Rural Health Association Rural Health Policy Institute?
?? 2023 Legislative Breakfast Stories from the Frontlines?
?? 2023 Rural Health Snapshot and Maternal Health Landscape Report?
?? All Aboard the Momnibus!?
?? Project ECHO Network in North Carolina (PEN-NC)?
?? Oral Health Day 2023?
?? The 2023 Bernstein Event
Join us in 2024 to advance equity for a healthier North Carolina!
Roadmap to Innovation?
FHLI’s Roadmap to Innovation will help communities develop and implement their own paths to health equity. Designed using our Community Voice model, this new project centers on?local, participatory decision-making to identify and act on community-driven solutions to health disparities and inequities.
Leveraging a $900,000 investment, we will work deeply in three groups of contiguous counties across North Carolina to:
Bertie County Integrated Behavioral Health Network?
Our Community Voice and Center of Excellence for Integrated Care (COE) teams facilitated a network of local leaders in Bertie County to address their community’s behavioral health needs. The Network leverages FHLI’s Community Voice model, centering participatory engagement that enables communities to address and identify their most pressing needs.
With these necessary resources in place, the community can?efficiently drive decision-making around desired outcomes, resource needs, and local and system-wide solutions.?The Network received a $300,000 grant from Merck to continue this essential?work in 2024!??
Bringing National Rural Health Day to Rural North Carolina?
The National Rural Health Association co-hosted a National Rural Health Day celebration with the North Carolina Office of Rural Health (NC ORH). It was an extra special year for two reasons. First, 2023 also marked the NC ORH’s 50th anniversary. Founded by our nonprofit’s founding director, Jim Bernstein, the NC ORH is the oldest office of rural health in the country.?
The second reason this year’s celebration was special is because we brought the festivities to rural North Carolinians. Instead of?having an event in Raleigh, we hosted the festivities at the Bertie County Aging Council - Senior Center, where the Bertie County Integrated Behavioral Health Network has met throughout the year.?
Local community members joined state officials and several federal government officials for the day-long event.??
Adding Maternal Health to the FHLI Portfolio?
Last year we launched the Maternal and Child Health Equity Action Network (MCHEAN) following our comprehensive landscape report, “Progress and Opportunities: Maternal and Child Health Equity in North Carolina .”
Through this work, we collaborate with mothers, birthing professionals, and advocates to map a better future for maternal and child health.
According to the latest March of Dimes report card, North Carolina is one of the worst states in the country for preterm births, with significant racial and economic disparities across the state.?
This issue is at the forefront of our minds, and we have incorporated a maternal and child health focus into our work in Bertie County and our Roadmap to Innovation, one of FHLI’s newest programs.
Medicaid Expansion?
Medicaid Expansion in North Carolina is a hard-won victory for public health, health care professionals, and everyone in our state. Advocates have worked to make this a reality since 2010 when the Affordable Care Act was passed.
Medicaid Expansion took effect statewide on December 1st, 2023. It is expected to provide over 600,000 people in the health care coverage gap* with access to?comprehensive health care including dental, behavioral health, and vision.
* People living in the health coverage gap earn incomes too high to qualify for Medicaid but too low to receive health care subsidies through the Affordable Care Act marketplace.
We at FHLI are thrilled to see this important step forward for North Carolina take effect, but we will continue working hard to improve health access and equity for all North Carolinians.
As we focus on the steps to move North Carolina closer toward truly healthy communities, we will harness our efforts and develop a 2025-2026 policy advocacy agenda to improve access and equity in care for all North Carolinians.
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National Rural Health Association Rural Health Policy Institute?
Early in 2023, we brought our collective voice to Capitol Hill, joining the NRHA for its 34th annual Rural Health Policy Institute.?The Rural Health Policy Institute enables rural health leaders across the country to bring community stories to Capitol Hill.
Participants help guide the future of rural health policy with NRHA leadership and advocate for important issues with new and returning members of Congress and the presidential administration.
2023 Legislative Breakfast
Last April, the North Carolina Rural Health Association (NCRHA) and the North Carolina Oral Health Collaborative (NCOHC) co-hosted this year’s legislative breakfast. At the event, we presented health care leadership awards to:?
Stories From the Frontlines...
During the event, Fortune and Stroud shared deeply personal stories about their experiences with health and health care in North Carolina:
Fortune’s Story?
When Fortune’s father began experiencing chest pain, he was taken to St. Luke’s, his daughter’s hospital. He was cleared and almost sent home before a doctor took time, paid attention, and discovered he was?having a heart attack.?
St. Luke’s didn’t have a cardiologist at the time. The only solution to a condition that kills nearly 19,000 North Carolinians each year was to load Fortune’s father into a helicopter and fly him to another hospital equipped to treat heart disease.?
St. Luke’s has a cardiologist now, thanks to increased funding. Their story is an all-too-common one for people across North Carolina, however, and too many rural hospitals remain unable to provide vital life-saving services.
Dr. Stroud’s Story?
Dr. Stroud also spoke to attendees about her motivation to work as a public health dentist in rural North Carolina. She grew up on food stamps, and her parents worked long hours in grueling jobs to make ends meet. Dr. Stroud?didn’t see her first dentist until a school-based program came to her school.
Today, she provides the same school-based care to children in Ashe, Alleghany, and Watauga Counties. Dr. Stroud choked up as she talked about the safety net, how it saved her life, and how hard it can be to continue her life-saving work faced with limited funding and staffing shortages.?
“Where I’m from, dentures are the norm,” said Stroud. “We need to make dentists the norm.” – Dr. Amanda Stroud
All Aboard the Momnibus!
The signs said it all: “Black Maternal Health is Nonpartisan.”?This was the message advocates, providers, and parents took to the legislature for Black Maternal Health Day of Action on April 19, 2023.
We joined advocates, mothers, and providers from across the state to meet with elected officials and discuss the importance of policy action to reduce racial disparities in maternal health across North Carolina.
2023 Rural Health Snapshot & Maternal Health Landscape Report
In 2023 we published another annual edition of the North Carolina Rural Health Association’s (NCRHA) Rural Health Snapshot [PDF]. FHLI staff unveiled the 2023 report at our legislative breakfast and distributed copies to legislators working to improve rural health in our state.
Our other report published in 2023, a Maternal and Child Health Equity Landscape Report [PDF], earned a prominent feature at the 2023 Black Maternal Health Day of Action at the North Carolina General Assembly.
Project ECHO Network in North Carolina (PEN-NC)
Early in 2023, we launched a new program in partnership with the North Carolina Area Health Education Centers (NC AHEC). Uniting NC AHEC’s technical assistance expertise alongside FHLI’s legacy of incubating innovative programs, PEN-NC will serve as the first statewide network of ECHO? projects.?
The ECHO? Model, originally developed by the University of New Mexico, is a framework for virtual learning communities where peers can share support, guidance, and feedback.
Oral Health Day 2023
Bright spots, pressing issues, and goals moving forward for oral health in North Carolina were on full display during Oral Health Day last?June. This year’s event theme was, “Challenges and Opportunities for the Dental Team.” Keynote speaker Kathy Colville and the other panelists shared expertise and ideas about how North Carolina can become a healthier, more equitable state.
“The mouth communicates, eats, smiles, frowns, and makes silly faces. Our mouth and teeth allow us to show emotion, communicate our thoughts, and be human. With proper oral health, our mouth can do all of these things better.” – Kathy Colville
The 2023 Bernstein Event
Thank you to all who joined us for this year’s Bernstein Event, for your generous contributions, and for your continued support of Jim Bernstein’s legacy! This year we:
Join Us in 2024 to Advance Health Equity in North Carolina
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