Title V Transformation Tools
Recommendations to Support NPM 1 – Well Woman Visit
Jump To: Skills | Knowledge
Significance. The Title V Maternal and Child Health Services Block Grant to States Program guidance1 defines the significance of this NPM as follows:
A well-woman or preconception visit provides a critical opportunity to receive recommended clinical preventive services, including screening, counseling, and immunizations, which can lead to appropriate identification, treatment, and prevention of disease to optimize the health of women before, between, and beyond potential pregnancies. For example, screening and management of chronic conditions such as diabetes, and counseling to achieve a healthy weight and smoking cessation, can be advanced within a well woman visit to promote women's health prior to and between pregnancies and improve subsequent maternal and perinatal outcomes. The annual well-woman visit has been endorsed by the American College of Obstetrics and Gynecologists (ACOG) and was also identified among the women's preventive services required by the Affordable Care Act (ACA) to be covered by private insurance plans without cost-sharing.
Background. The Maternal and Child Health Bureau (MCHB) Title V Maternal and Child Health Services Block Grants to States Program has established 15 National Performance Measures (NPMs) for the 2015-2017 grant cycle. In order to effectively address the NPMs, MCH professionals need to think about not only the evidence and strategies to make change, but also the capacity of the workforce to carry out these activities. These lists identify online learning materials, resources, and evidence-based strategies and programs to support the knowledge sets and skills needed to advance each NPM.
Introduction. Six skill sets have been identified by the National MCH Workforce Development Center to support implementation of this NPM: (1) population health; (2) strategic planning and program design; (3) strategic alliances and effective partnerships; (4) consumer engagement and cultural and linguistic brokering; (5) policy and program implementation; and (6) communication.
In addition, two knowledge areas specific to the NPM topic area have been highlighted that are keyed to the evidence base and promising practices: (1) well woman visit background, recommendations, and guidelines and (2) well woman policies and strategies.
The MCH Navigator, in collaboration with the Center, has developed this crosswalk to guide MCH professionals to online learning opportunities and implementation resources to support these skill sets.
Please click on the Read More buttons below for additional information, learning materials, and implementation resources. You can also email us with suggestions for additions.
Skills
Six skill sets have been identified to support implementation of this NPM:
1. Population Health
A renewed focus on MCH population health is key to achieving the NPMs in the era of health transformation. These skills enable Title V professionals to analyze how program interventions and their related health outcomes are distributed among a state’s MCH population. Population health skills complement all of Title V’s work, including program design and implementation, strategic partnerships and communication.
Skills:
- Ability to conduct surveillance of well-woman visit utilization that allows public health practitioners to understand and respond to disparities in utilization of visits
- Ability to use population health surveillance to inform proposed delivery system changes
- Skills to analyze how health care delivery systems identify and refer women for appropriate treatment following a well-woman visit
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2. Strategic Planning & Program Design
Effective strategic planning and program design requires the ability to base programs on defined goals and desired outcomes. Strategic planning should include a monitoring and evaluation system to track and monitor progress and inform program alterations as needed. Program design skills must ultimately be coupled with implementation, where program design is carried out.
Skills:
- Ability to employ qualitative methods in needs assessments with families, providers, and communities to identify attitudes about and root causes of low use in preventive services
- Skills in quality improvement to support providers and health systems in making data-informed decisions
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3. Strategic Alliances & Effective Partnerships
The wide array of stakeholders and partners in the field of MCH, from providers and insurers to women and children, require a set of skills in strategically aligning Title V goals with those of their partners. In the Title V world, there is an increasing interest in engaging unlikely or nontraditional partners to achieve the NPMs. The skills in this category take that into account and include unique partner groups linked to this measure.
Skills:
- Skills to create and manage external alliances that engage public health, private health plans, federally qualified health centers, and Medicaid to increase awareness of well-woman visit coverage among providers and women
- Skills to manage public health and inter-governmental partnerships that work to advance the receipt of preventive services and the health of women
- Ability to foster collaboration between public and private health care providers to increase the utilization and quality of well-woman visits
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4. Consumer Engagement/Cultural & Linguistic Brokering
Consumers are arguably the most important stakeholders in MCH work, thus skills in consumer engagement and cultural and linguistic brokering are essential to moving the needle for each NPM. In some cases, consumer engagement includes negotiating with other stakeholders on behalf of MCH populations. Closely linked with this skills category are skills in communication and strategic alliances.
Skills:
- Ability to effectively engage consumers in policy and program efforts that provide education about and increase utilization of preventive health care services for women
- Skills to educate and monitor providers about their responsibilities for accessible interactions with women related to translation services, linguistic access, and American Disability Act (ADA) compliance
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5. Policy & Program Implementation
These skills ensure that MCH priorities are integrated into all aspects of policy and program implementation, as well as ensuring that policies and programs selected are well-aligned with NPMs and other MCH program goals. Implementing policies and programs with fidelity also requires skills in the implementation science drivers: technical and adaptive leadership; selection; training; coaching; systems intervention; facilitative administration; and decision support data systems.
Skills:
- Skills to support robust and effective referral systems to preventive services in community settings
- Ability to analyze workforce shortage data that reflect the capacity of communities to provide well-woman visits
- Ability to determine legal authority behind existing memoranda of understanding with governmental agencies in regard to well-woman care
- Skills to develop memoranda of understanding with Medicaid and other payers to develop policies that ensure effective services and reimbursement for well-woman care
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6. Communication
Communication skills support the creation and delivery of effective messages between MCH professionals, professional and community partners, and populations served by Title V. Effective communication ensures the delivery of appropriate messages to audiences in the way that they were intended and is key to all aspects of MCH work. These skills are linked closely with skills in strategic partnerships and cultural and linguistic brokering.
Skills:
- Skills to effectively communicate the importance of preventive services with selected audiences of women
- Ability to effectively market well-woman services offered by public health departments in states/territories where Title V provides or supports clinical services for women
- Ability to communicate with consumers about their legal rights related to access and quality of preventive care
- Skills to effectively integrate preventive service visit initiatives into existing health promotion campaigns for women, including preconception campaigns and healthy heart campaigns
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Knowledge
In addition to skills, each NPM requires a knowledge base that will help Title V progress effectively in the measure. Knowledge should be considered at the foundation of achieving all measures.
1. Well Woman Visit Background, Recommendations & Guidelines
- Knowledge about critical determinants of health for women, including social, environmental, genetic and health system
- Knowledge of health benefits (physical, emotional, etc.) of recommended preventive services for women
- Knowledge of economic benefits, including return on investment, of preventive health services for women
- Knowledge of all aspects of clinical guidelines for preventive services for woman and evidence underlying those guidelines
- Knowledge of utilization rates for well-woman visits in private and public practice settings
- Knowledge of barriers to well-woman visits
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2. Well Woman Visit Policies & Strategies
- Knowledge of Medicaid, Marketplace and employer-sponsored coverage for women’s health services and associated cost sharing
- Knowledge of resources to regularly follow and/or research state and federal policies and guidance regarding preventive medical visits for women’s preventive health services
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See other online learning resources related to health transformation, collected in the Health Transformation Learning Laboratory.
1 Health Resources and Services Administration. 2014. Title V Maternal and Child Health Services Block Grant to States Program: Guidance and Forms for the Title V Application/Annual Report, Appendix F, p. 74.
