THE DEVELOPMENT OF A HIGHER EDUCATION CENTER’S ROLE IN THE STATE’S QUALITY HEALTHCARE MARKETPLACE: ADVOCACY, TRAINING AND OUTREACH

The state of Delaware is making great strides towards achieving a quality healthcare marketplace by building the capacities of institutions, organizations and individual advocates to define their roles and functions in Delaware’s healthcare marketplace improvement strategy, with the number one priority of aligning all healthcare improvement strategies in Delaware.

Delaware State University (DSU) convened a multidisciplinary public health education workgroup that sought to define opportunities for community engagement activities for health promotion in the surrounding counties and diverse population areas as a major element for culturally-related trainings and hard-to-reach community outreach. The workgroup also sought to determine whether student learning outcomes that increased practical experiences for DSU students in the community could be established by working with and for the state’s healthcare marketplace improvement strategy.

The University’s departments of Nursing and Social Work were interested in providing assistance to individuals who presented physical, social and emotional problems while applying for insurance. Such assistance could include information and referrals and/or medical screenings at locations where individuals enrolled for health care insurance. Specific communities were identified based upon the concentration of individuals most likely to be eligible for Marketplace insurance, as well as the University’s history with these areas as both a service provider and advocate for programs and services to address the needs and concerns of community residents.The University’s experience and capacity to perform this role has been illustrated over the past ten years in collaborative and civic leadership roles for community public health.

The higher education center role development and function, differentiation process addressed the following three (3) real-time areas of need:
1. State agency staff need training in how consumers must use the Marketplace to obtain insurance.
2. State agencies need assistance in providing supplemental direct services to Marketplace consumers; direct service will respond to the needs and problems that emerge while consumers are applying for Marketplace health insurance.
3. Student learning outcomes in academic health programs could be aligned to practical clinical and field-based experiences in the proposed healthcare marketplace strategies for policy implementation.

This article will describe the structures, processes and outcomes applied in the establishment of a collaborative working relationship and the resulting contractual agreement for healthcare marketplace start-up services in Delaware to meet the requirements of the U.S. Affordable Care Act.