Access to Health Care

 

Advancing access to safe, affordable, quality health care to all Kentuckians.

Healthy Kentucky believes in innovative health care delivery systems, strengthening public health infrastructure, and supporting collaborative efforts that address the social drivers of health to ensure Kentuckians receive care responsive to their health and health care needs.

 
 

  • What we do:

    • Through both pass-through grants and direct funding, the Foundation supports programs and organizations that are working to improve healthcare access, address social determinants of health, and implement innovative health strategies.

    • Collaborate with our endowed chairs at UK and UofL to enhance partners, pipelines, and pathways to support students with public health backgrounds to healthcare careers.

    • Advocate for laws, regulations, programs and/or practices to improve healthcare access.

    • Engage in coalitions and partnerships to cultivate strong, statewide collaboration around improving access to care.

  • What we do:

    • Through both pass-through grants and direct funding, we support efforts to increase vaccine uptake through boots-on-the-ground work and awareness campaigns. The grantmaking also works to increase the vaccine data available through the Kentucky Immunization Registry.

    • Support the research of immunization data in the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS) to improve the accuracy of under-surveyed populations.

    • We have also conducted our own immunization awareness campaigns, many of which targeted under-vaccinated communities.

    • Collaborate with organizations to nurture partnerships and information-sharing around best practices to improve access to vaccines.

  • What we do:    

    • Coordinate and support efforts to educate employers about addressing worksite barriers to cancer screenings.

    • Grantmaking to increase usage of government provided healthcare coverage to get recommended cancer screenings.

    • Support the research of screening data in the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS) to improve the accuracy of under-surveyed populations.

    • Engage in coalitions and partnerships to cultivate strong, statewide collaboration around improving access to cancer screenings.

  • What we do:

    • Raise awareness among state and local policy makers about utilizing community health improvement plans to inform their work.

    • Collaborate with anchor institutions and our Endowed Chairs to inform and build capacity at the community level to improve public health access.

  • What we do:

    • Educate and build support among internal and external stakeholders of the need and value of comprehensive data transparency in Kentucky.

    • Coordinate advocacy campaign to enact legislation that improves health care data transparency in Kentucky. One strategy to achieve that goal is the implementation of a Health Data Utility. Learn more here.

 
 

Access to Quality Health Care Grantees include:

  • Kentucky Voices for Health (KVH)

    • KVH promotes policies that ensure equitable access to affordable, safe, and effective integrated health care services through the following:

      • Ensuring that Kentuckians have a say in the decisions that affect their health;

      • Increasing the number of Kentuckians with healthcare coverage;

      • Increase the availability of qualified providers;

      • Examining policies that facilitate equitable access to quality healthcare services without barriers;

      • Monitoring and mitigating barriers to coverage and care; and,

      • Promoting policies that align with consumer needs for more affordable coverage, higher quality healthcare services, improved health outcomes and more cost-effective care.

  • Kentucky Equal Justice Center (KEJC)

    • KEJC works toward access to health coverage and consumer-friendly enrollment systems for all Kentuckians, with a special focus on immigrant, English as a Second Language, homeless, sexually exploited, and justice-involved populations;

    • Affordable, high quality care for all Kentuckians; and,

    • Empowered consumers who value health coverage and take advantage of preventive care, chronic disease care, and substance use treatment.

  • Kentucky Equal Justice Center Health Law Fellow

    • The KEJC Health Law Fellow works on reconstruction of consumer-friendly health care enrollment and coverage;

    • Consumer protections against medical debt collection;

    • Improved healthcare access for everyone; and,

    • Policymaking based on consumer experience and facts, instead of stereotypes.