Linking health care and public health data

Mylynn Tufte:

My name is Mylynn Tufte. I served as the state health officer for North Dakota for three and a half years, starting in February of 2017, through the beginning of the pandemic, until the end of May of 2020. My passion has always been making a difference in the health and wellbeing of individuals and populations. I get to do that now at Optum, where I'm the population health practice lead for strategy and growth. At Optum, we're dedicated to helping people live healthier lives and making the health system work better for everyone. We deliver simple, effective and comprehensive solutions to organizations and consumers across the whole health system, by integrating our competencies of data and analytics, clinical expertise, embedded technology, and consumer experience into all Optum services. On behalf of Optum, and from me personally, please accept our gratitude for your service, dedication and strength throughout this unprecedented pandemic response. You are heroes to us.

Mylynn Tufte:

Optum is a part of UnitedHealth Group, this includes UnitedHealthcare and our other sister entities. We've been helping communities and leading throughout these challenging times in many ways. We've been giving back to communities through funding in our COVID relief recovery efforts, and we've given $50 million nationally, as well as $10 million internationally. This funding has been used to protect and support healthcare workers, address isolation among seniors, and support people experiencing food insecurity and homelessness. We're providing operational support, applying clinical expertise and innovation. For example, we helped pioneer a non-invasive, self-administered COVID-19 test method, that streamlined the testing process and reduced PPE usage. We continue to support communities and members with access to care and tools to manage stress during this time.

Mylynn Tufte:

Currently, Optum works in 35 states, providing a variety of health and human service programs. We know that health is not just the care provided by healthcare providers. Health is dependent on the communities we live, work and play, and the social supports that give us meaning and hope. We are working to address health inequities and bias throughout the system. I'm going to highlight a few examples of the work we're doing to support states responding to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Mylynn Tufte:

In West Virginia, Indiana, and another state, where we're providing COVID-19 testing data that's enabled an equitable response and increased trust with citizens. When the COVID-19 crisis hit, Optum partnered with the West Virginia Department of Health and Human Resources. We provided support and an integrated eligibility system that processes benefits for medical coverage, food and housing assistance. This scalable system was able to extend critical benefits quickly in response to policy changes. For example, within 72 hours, Medicaid and CHIP benefits were extended to more than 77,000 recipients. The eligibility system is critical to make sure West Virginians can get the help they need promptly.

Mylynn Tufte:

In Indiana, we've supported the State Offices of Medicaid Policy and Planning, OMMP, with data warehousing and analytics services for years. About a year before the pandemic, we were selected to help improve the data governance of their analytics system, with the goal of democratizing the data, and allow access to many other agencies as needed. This new framework launched right before the pandemic and it supports inter-operability, and enabled agencies and individuals to access the data. With the new data governance and processes in place, state agencies, especially public health, were able to better monitor testing by using these existing systems. They also provided an accurate daily dashboard, empowering state health leaders to understand the data and make real time strategic adjustments to respond.

Mylynn Tufte:

Our last example comes from another state that experienced similar challenges scaling systems to support increased testing needs in response to the pandemic. Optum was selected to take the load off the current overburdened system and accommodate for current and future testing growth. This fully automated system and approach provides highly reliable data, and a repeatable process that enables better reporting and tracking, including addressing inequities that were exposed by the pandemic. The result is a strategic system that helped to unify state and local jurisdictions in their response, and to increase public trust.

Mylynn Tufte:

All three of these examples have a similar thread, in that they all took the opportunity to address the critical situation of the pandemic, and had the foresight to plan for the long-term. Taking that long-term view is particularly important today, as we address the challenges of the current COVID vaccine rollout. The public health system has been put to the test, revealing years of neglect in funding and resources. Now is the time and opportunity to put in place the technology, infrastructure and analytics for the public health system of the future.

Mylynn Tufte:

With the COVID-19 funding of today, public health organizations can improve the data and analytics systems of tomorrow, including the interoperability of systems and data, advancement of analytic maturity and approaches, combined with public health workflows and readiness, your strategy should address immediate and long-term needs that reflect your unique circumstances. Optum is a partner in preparedness, prevention and innovation. By delivering solutions across spectrums of health, we are focused on our aspiration of improving experiences and outcomes for everyone we serve, while reducing the total cost of care. When we collaborate with visionary, motivated individuals like you, together we can tackle the biggest challenges in healthcare and accomplish results that move healthcare forward. Thank you.