Health literacy is not simply the ability to read. It requires a complex group of reading, listening, analytical, and decision-making skills, and the ability to apply these skills to health situations.
— Maria K Todd, MHA PhD
He told me that he attended a professional association meeting recently, where the employers were discussing their pain points: employee engagement and health “illiteracy”. This was intriguing to me, because I’ve encountered the same thing in managed care contracting. If the contract analysts and negotiation team, and the pricing team are not health literate and procedure literate, how the heck can they negotiate payments for healthcare treatments and procedures or even physician cognition?
So I started doing some research to see what the solution could be. This week, that’s where I am going to focus the series of coffee breaks so, if you know an employer, an ACO, or someone else who will benefit from this, please share it. Let’s see if we can find practicable solution or an inroad into higher engagement through higher health literacy initiatives.
Healthy People 2020
In case you hadn’t heard over the hubhub of SGR, ACA, HIPAA, HITECH, ICD-10, and so many other priorities, on Thursday December 2, 2010, HHS announced a new health promotion and disease prevention agenda.
“Healthy People is the nation‟s roadmap
and compass for better health, providing our society a vision for improving both the quantity and quality
of life for all Americans.”
The Healthy People initiative is grounded in the principle that setting national objectives and monitoring
progress can motivate action, and indeed, in just the last decade, preliminary analyses indicate that the
country has either progressed toward or met 71 percent of its Healthy People targets.
Healthy People 2020 is the product of an extensive stakeholder feedback process that is unparalleled in
government and health. It integrates input from public health and prevention experts, a wide range of
federal, state and local government officials, a consortium of more than 2,000 organizations, and perhaps
most importantly, the public. More than 8,000 comments were considered in drafting a comprehensive
set of Healthy People 2020 objectives. Based on this input, a number of new topic areas are included in
the new initiative, including:
- Adolescent Health
- Blood Disorders and Blood Safety
- Dementias, including Alzheimer‟s Disease
- Early and Middle Childhood
- Genomics
- Global Health
- Health-Related Quality of Life and Well-Being
- Healthcare-Associated Infections
- Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Health
- Older Adults
- Preparedness
- Sleep Health
- Social Determinants of Health
As part of the initiative, Healthy People Healthy People also issued a special challenge to encourage developers to create easy-to-use applications for professionals who are working with the new national health objectives and state- and community-level health data.
Vision
A society in which all people live long, healthy lives.
Mission
Healthy People 2020 strives to:
- Identify nationwide health improvement priorities.
- Increase public awareness and understanding of the determinants of health, disease, and disability and the opportunities for progress.
- Provide measurable objectives and goals that are applicable at the national, State, and local levels.
- Engage multiple sectors to take actions to strengthen policies and improve practices that are driven by the best available evidence and knowledge.
- Identify critical research, evaluation, and data collection needs.
- Attain high-quality, longer lives free of preventable disease, disability, injury, and premature death.
- Achieve health equity, eliminate disparities, and improve the health of all groups.
- Create social and physical environments that promote good health for all.
- Promote quality of life, healthy development, and healthy behaviors across all life stages.
- General Health Status
- Health-Related Quality of Life and Well-Being
- Determinants of Health
- Disparities
But here’s the kicker: Most people claim they don’t understand their doctor’s instructions. Health Literacy is defined in the Institute of Medicine report, Health Literacy: A Prescription to End Confusion, as “the degree to which individuals have the capacity to obtain, process, and understand basic health information and services needed to make appropriate health decisions.”
Health literacy is not simply the ability to read. It requires a complex group of reading, listening, analytical, and decision-making skills, and the ability to apply these skills to health situations. For example, it includes the ability to understand instructions on prescription drug bottles, appointment slips, medical education brochures, doctor’s directions and consent forms, and the ability to negotiate complex health care systems. It also requires people to understand some anatomy and physiology – like a parts list in an assembly manual.
