Live Healthy Fairfax

CONTACT INFORMATION: Available during regular business hours 8 a.m. - 4:30 p.m., Monday - Friday
703-246-2411 TTY 711
10777 Main Street
Fairfax, VA 22030
Gillian Kimura
Partnership Program Coordinator

Department Resources

Health Care Use & Access

strip of four photos illustrating health care

Enhancing communication and facilitating navigation within the health care system while expanding access to affordable, equitable health care services

Community Identified Themes:

  • Healthy Behaviors
  • Knowledge of Resources
  • Access to Affordable Care

Definition:

Health care access: The ability for all community members to obtain affordable, high-quality, and culturally responsive care when and where they need it. It includes navigation support, trusted information, and equitable pathways to safety net programs and preventive, specialty, and emergency services.

Goal 1:

Integrate the existing Access to Health Care and Insurance group into the Partnership for a Healthier Fairfax and work with the team to develop, implement and sustain CHIP goals

Community Identified Theme:  Capacity Building

Key Actions:

1.1  Identify perspectives not currently represented, including community members experiencing the greatest disparities

1.2  Assess alignment between current team’s portfolio of work, potential community partners’ work and the CHIP areas of work

1.3  Educate team members, leaders and partners on the work and invite them to participate

1.4  Develop a charter to define the roles of the Health Access Team in supporting the CHIP areas of work and identify resources needed


Goal 2:

Work with Community leaders to expand residents’ knowledge of health care safety net system, changes to the system, and where to find precise and accurate information

Community Identified Theme: Healthy Behaviors/Knowledge of Resources

Key Actions:

2.1  Develop a communications taskforce within the Health Access Team

2.2  Create a communications plan, including priorities, target audiences, timelines and dissemination strategies

2.3 Seek additional avenues and resources to strengthen outreach with and through key community leaders and influencers
 


Goal 3:

Increase collaboration between low-cost health providers and payers, including Federally Qualified Health Centers (FQHCs), free clinics, Health Department public health clinics, healthcare organizations, and school health resources, to increase capacity and equitable access to affordable healthcare and specialty care

Community Identified Theme:  Access to Affordable Healthcare

Key Actions:

3.1  Develop a feedback mechanism for identifying challenges and opportunities for increasing the capacity of affordable healthcare

3.2  Enhance analytic capacity for assessing local health care and support needs through the development of collaborative data sharing processes between the Health Department and safety net provider organizations

3.3  Explore opportunities for enhanced communication across health safety net and Medicaid providers and social safety net providers


Goal 4:

Equitably promote and expand the availability of career pathways for auxiliary health professions

Community Identified Theme: Access to Affordable Healthcare

Key Actions:

4.1  Form a Career Pathways team to examine options to develop pathways and improve systems to promote careers in health fields, especially for those from underrepresented communities

4.2 Conduct a landscape review to identify the partners already working in this space and support their efforts to ensure accessibility for diverse populations

4.3  Increase access to paraprofessional certification and training programs and increase knowledge about the importance of these roles in public health

4.4  Increase cultural competency for healthcare providers and advocate for the recruitment of individuals that represent the diversity of our population into healthcare fields


Goal 5:

Advocate for affordable healthcare at the local level and provide data and local insights for the advocates at state levels

Community Identified Theme:  Access to Affordable Healthcare

Key Actions:

5.1  Establish a Policy team, with representatives from marginalized communities and multiple sectors of the healthcare system, to examine options for advocacy for affordable healthcare

5.2  Establish ways to partner with the Healthcare Advisory Board (HCAB) on advocacy opportunities

5.3  Provide data and local insights for organizations working to advocate for 340B program improvements and support their advocacy efforts

5.4  Provide data and local insights for advocacy organizations and support their affordable healthcare advocacy efforts


 

Next Page: Priority 2 - Food Access & Healthy Eating

Previous Page: CHIP Development Process

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