Advisory Group On Prevention, Health Promotion and Integrative and Public Health

DRAFT – For Discussion Purposes Only   
 
First Report of the Advisory Group on Prevention, Health Promotion, and Integrative and 
Public Health 
DRAFT FOR ADVISORY GROUP REVIEW
November 21, 2011 
 
The Advisory Group on Prevention, Health Promotion, and Integrative and Public Health was 
created under the Affordable Care Act to “develop policy and program recommendations and
advise the National Prevention Council (NPC) on lifestyle-based chronic disease prevention and
management, integrative health care practices, and health promotion” (Section 4001).  In 
fulfilling this mission, the Advisory Group has met four times in person or by phone over the last 
seven months.  This is the first of what we anticipate will be a series of reports commenting on 
the Nation’s progress in improving the health of Americans through prevention-related activities.   
 
I.  The National Prevention Strategy (NPS) is a major step forward in integrating health 
and prevention into the work of all agencies of the federal government.  We commend 
the National Prevention Council for its work on the Strategy and recommend that 
specific steps be taken to assure its implementation and success. 
 
The NPS is grounded in the evidence of what works and includes opportunities across sectors to 
advance individual and community wellbeing.  The NPS is a major statement of our Nation’s 
commitment to embracing a health in all policies approach to prevention.  It reflects the fact that 
the contributions of all agencies and sectors of society, including individuals and communities, 
have an important role to play in effectively improving the nation’s health. 
 
The Advisory Group is impressed at the effort all the members of the NPC contributed to the 
Strategy and the commitment of key non-health agencies to helping to lead the implementation 
effort.  We appreciate the efforts of the Surgeon General and those staffing the NPC for the 
important progress to date.   
 
To assure that the vision in the NPS for integrating prevention and health promotion into the 
work of all sectors is translated into reality, we urge: 
 
Recommendation 1: The NPC should identify short-term commitments by each of the 
participating agencies to achieve the goals and targets of the NPS– whether through new 
interagency collaborations, changes in existing program requirements, or new framing of the 
ongoing work of the agencies to emphasize positive net health benefits.  The NPS should also 
involve other agencies, not currently members of the NPS, as appropriate to meeting these goals. 
 
Recommendation 2: The NPC should coordinate immediate steps by NPC agencies to take a 
health “lens” to major initiatives and programs, using approaches such as Health Impact 
Assessments. Assessments should be completed at the agency level regarding their own work.  
Additionally, agencies should incentivize, as appropriate, grantees through special funding, 
technical support and/or additional evaluation points during grant or contract reviews for those 
having completed or planning HIAs. 

The NPS as a guiding document needs to have greater visibility.  We urge that three approaches 
be taken: 
 
Recommendation 3: Member agencies in the NPC should reach out to their stakeholders to 
educate them about the NPS and its value to the core business of each agency.  Members of the 
Advisory Group would be happy to play a role in these efforts, if helpful. 
 
Recommendation 4: We strongly support the Surgeon General’s plans for regional meetings 
over the next year to bring together various stakeholders across the NPC spectrum to learn about 
the NPS and catalyze similar collaborations at the state and local level – within government and 
across sectors including but not limited to academia; non-profit organizations such as patient 
advocacy groups, community organizations and faith-based organizations; philanthropy; and the 
business community.  Critical to the success of these forums will be broad participation by 
leadership from the NPC to “model” and incentivize collaborations among their grantees.  We 
are also pleased at the interest by Grantmakers in Health to engage philanthropy in this mission. 
 
Recommendation 5: As the Administration moves to complete the membership of our Advisory  
Group, we urge that new appointees include representatives reflective of the scope of the 
National Prevention Council as well as  non-governmental sectors (e.g., business community, 
community and faith based organizations) critical to the long-term success of the NPS. 
 
Recommendation 6: We need to measure and document the success of these efforts through 
qualitative and quantitative measures.  We urge that “success stories” related to implementation 
of the NPS be documented and that the NPC also set quantitative measures for its work in the 
short and midterm.  In addition, we suggest that the NPC develop a “dashboard” that documents 
for the public the collective impact on the Nation’s health of the various activities undertaken 
through the NPS. 
 
II.  The Prevention and Public Health Fund (Fund) is a vital resource in assuring funding 
for the efforts envisioned by the National Prevention Strategy. 
 
The Advisory Group is deeply concerned by ongoing efforts to repeal or defund the Fund and is 
also concerned that the Administration has proposed capping the Fund’s resources at $1.5 billion 
a year rather than the $2 billion authorized in the Affordable Care Act.  The Fund provides a 
unique opportunity to support transformative efforts in prevention, including the Community 
Transformation Grants and the core capacity of public health departments who not only promote 
health but also serve as critical public safety agencies in emergency preparedness and response.  
Reducing the growth in the Fund could well undermine the success of the National Prevention   
Strategy and adversely affect the success of health reform. 
 
Recommendation 7: We urge the Administration and the Congress to protect the Prevention and 
Public Health Fund and assure its implementation at the original funding levels set in the 
Affordable Care Act. 
 
III.  We commend the Administration for the implementation of the new Community 
Transformation Grants (CTG) program.   
 
We believe that the CTGs reflect the vision of the NPS to focus on policy and systems change 
and to make prevention a collaborative process among sectors.  We believe that the CTGs 
provide an excellent opportunity for assessing the impact of the collaborative activities 
envisioned by the NPC. We were disappointed to hear that high quality applications were 
approved but not funded due to lack of funds. Therefore we urge: 
 
Recommendation 8: As early as possible in the new fiscal year Prevention and Public Health 
Fund resources should be used to fund the highest qualified approved but unfunded programs.  
Rapid initiation of the changes envisioned by the CTGs is critical to improving health outcomes. 
 
IV.  Public awareness and utilization of appropriate clinical preventive services is vital to 
achieving improved health outcomes envisioned in the NPS. 
 
The Advisory Group is concerned by utilization and survey data that suggest low levels of  
awareness about coverage for preventive services under the Affordable Care Act.  Improving 
health outcomes and containing costs during health reform will depend on both community 
prevention efforts discussed above as well as maximum utilization of clinical preventive services 
covered by the ACA.  We believe that this deficit in awareness and utilization can be solved by a 
two-pronged approach that engages the public through a public education campaign and 
harnesses existing and newly authorized public health programs to promote awareness and use of 
preventive services.   
 
Recommendation 9: Funds from the Prevention and Public Health Fund should be used to 
undertake a public education campaign that promotes greater awareness of prevention and the 
preventive services now covered in the ACA (as authorized under Section 4004 of the ACA).   
Such a campaign should be strategically targeted to effectively reach populations at greatest risk.  
The Fund should also be used to conduct outreach and link to services, e.g. support a community 
health worker initiative (as authorized under Section 5313 of the ACA).  Further, HHS should 
examine the role of existing federally funded public health programs with documented 
effectiveness to transition individuals in these programs to enrollment in new health plans and 
utilization of preventive and other services. 
 
V.  We must assure all resources and authorities created under the Affordable Care Act 
promote a prevention perspective consistent with the National Prevention Strategy, in 
particular the work of the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation and the new 
community benefit requirements of the Internal Revenue Service. 
 
The commitment of the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation to support population 
health initiatives is encouraging to the Advisory Group and reflects an important understanding 
that what happens in the community can directly affect costs and outcomes in the clinical sphere.   
 
Recommendation 10: We urge that a broad-based approach be taken to demonstration projects 
supported by the CMS Innovation Center– incorporating inclusion in new financing and 
organizational structures of appropriate non-traditional (i.e., non-medical and often community 
based) providers, public health agencies doing critical surveillance, quality assurance,  systems 

change, and non-clinical services (e.g., home and community environmental mitigation for 
asthma) that affect health outcomes through evidence-based primary or secondary prevention 
approaches.  The Advisory Group welcomes further discussions with CMS about how best to 
implement this recommendation. 

Recommendation 11: We urge that the Department of the Treasury, in particular the Internal 
Revenue Service, be added to the deliberations of the National Prevention Council.  The work of 
the IRS in developing regulations requiring the approximately 3000 tax-exempt hospitals to 
conduct community health needs assessments (CHNA) and adopt implementation strategies 
addressing these needs, together with their current oversight and potential redesign of the 
Community Benefit provisions of the tax code, which require non-profit hospitals to fulfill 
community health needs, should reflect the perspectives offered in the National Prevention 
Strategy.  This will help to maximize the impact of the community benefit and assure that 
community benefit activities of hospitals are in line with community needs and coordinated with 
other effective prevention and health promotion efforts.  
 
VI.  Conclusion 
 
In the months ahead, we look forward to working with the Surgeon General, the members of  the 
National Prevention Council, and all committed to prevention within and outside the government 
to achieve the recommendations identified above and to create greater awareness of the National 
Prevention Strategy and its potential contribution to America’s well being and prosperity.   
 
In addition, we hope to work with the NPC to develop further the concept of resiliency as a 
critical element in health promotion.  We were deeply impressed by presentations on the 
Department of Defense’s Total Force Fitness strategy, in particular its focus on creating 
resiliency that depends on physical, emotional, spiritual, and community well being.  We believe 
that this approach reflects the broader definition of health as defined in the NPS and the 
Affordable Care Act and helps to define the role that multiple sectors play in creating a healthy, 
resilient America – with positive health, economic, security, and social consequences.