Government

The Ohio Department of Health Asthma Program (ODHAP) began in 1998 with funding from the Public Health Prevention Block Grant from CDC. The program is housed within the Office of Health Improvement and Wellness (OHIW) - Bureau of Maternal Child Health.

In 2014, ODHAP was granted its fourth consecutive asthma grant from CDC. The focus of the new grant changed to a more service-directed approach and ODHAP will be working to improve comprehensive asthma care in Ohio toward providing a seamless alignment of the full array of services across the public health and health care sectors so that people with asthma receive all, not just some, of the services they need. The first step is to ensure the availability of and access to guidelines-based medical management and pharmacotherapy for all people with asthma generally, with a focus on populations disproportionately impacted by asthma. ODHAP will partner with the Ohio Governor’s Office of Health Transformation (OHT), which is a Center for Medicare & Medicaid Innovation (CMMI) awardee, to incentivize quality and cost effective care for asthma across the state, beginning with the areas of greatest need. ODHAP will partner with members of the Ohio Children’s Hospital Association (the six children’s hospitals in Ohio) to model evidence- and guideline-based quality initiatives that will help to provide appropriate clinical care to people with asthma. ODHAP will also be working to expand community services for home- and school-based comprehensive care and to make the linkages between clinical and community care, with a focus on the children’s hospitals and two federally qualified health center networks (FQHCs) in Southeastern Ohio, to achieve a higher level of comprehensive care for Ohioans with asthma.

The Ohio Department of Health’s Comprehensive Asthma Control Through Evidence-based Strategies and Public Health - Health Care Collaboration is a federal grant funded by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) for a five-year cycle for the period of Aug. 1, 2014 to July 31, 2019. The purpose of the grant is to maximize the reach, impact, efficiency and sustainability of comprehensive asthma control services. The intent of the program is to provide comprehensive asthma care that provides a seamless alignment of the full array of services across the public health and health care sectors so that people with asthma receive all, not just some, of the services they need.

The goals of the Ohio Department of Health Asthma Grant Program are:

1. Increase the reach, efficiency, and sustainability of comprehensive guideline-based asthma services
2. Expand healthcare coverage, ensuring people with asthma have access to guideline-based medical management and asthma control medicine
3. Link people with asthma, who are without a primary care provider or who have more severe disease, to more individualized services
4. Promote intensive self-management education, school and home-based services and environmental management strategies

To accomplish the goals, strategies have been developed in the following areas:

1. Infrastructure - supporting leadership, strategic partnerships, strategic communications, surveillance and evaluation
2. Services - expanding school-based and home-based services
3. Health systems - improving coverage, delivery, quality and use of clinical services

For more information on Ohio’s Asthma Program visit the ODH Asthma website at: http://www.odh.ohio.gov/odhprograms/eh/asthma/asthma1.aspx