The Milbank Blog

Since the advent of the patient-centered medical home and team-based care concepts, health reformers have sought to unearth the specific interventions and techniques in primary care settings that are most likely to improve patient outcomes and value.  More

If it weren’t for the annual reminder from our primary care offices, how many of us would get our flu shots? In a new Milbank blog post, Ariadne Labs’ Rebecca Weintraub and Asaf Bitton and the Milbank Memorial Fund’s Christopher F. Koller say that these nudges — and the trust we have in our primary care clinicians — should inform how federal, state, and local governments plan for an effective distribution of a COVID-19 vaccine.   More

The 988 designation is a federal designation of the need for easier access to behavioral health crisis services and part of a trend for strengthening the continuum of behavioral health care to include a wide array of community-based services, as well as inpatient services through public and private hospitals.   More

For both government and philanthropy, strategies for broadening the responsibility for improving social determinants fall into three categories: leadership, investment and accountability.  More

The COVID-19 pandemic has exacerbated risks for isolation and loneliness, especially for older adults who face heightened risks from the virus and who are more likely to live alone.  More

As part of the Public Sector Leadership Consortium’s Leadership Forward podcast series, we recently spoke with Tom Betlach, MPA, former Arizona Medicaid director, and Jim Jones, Medicaid director at the Wisconsin Department of Health Services, to discuss the skills they have used to lead public agencies through economic recessions.  More

As part of the Public Sector Leadership Consortium’s new Leadership Forward series, we spoke with Womazetta Jones, secretary of Rhode Island’s Executive Office of Health and Human Services, and Karen Kimsey, director of the Virginia Department of Medical Assistance Services, to discuss leadership strategies they have implemented to infuse equity into their organizations and in their engagements with stakeholders.  More

As part of the Public Sector Leadership Consortium’s Leadership Forward podcast series, I recently spoke with LaQuandra Nesbitt, MD, MPH, director of the District of Columbia Department of Health, and Suzanne Bierman, JD, MPH, administrator of the Division of Health Care Financing and Policy for the Nevada Department of Health and Human Services, to discuss how they have remained focused on a long-term vision throughout COVID-19 and used strategic communications and other approaches to advance that vision.  More

What role has storytelling played in the successes and failures of state government responses to the COVID-19 pandemic? In an article published…  More