Newly created 'Health Enterprise Zone' to tackle health disparities in North Phila.

State and city officials unveiled plans Thursday to address the health disparities in North Philadelphia through the creation of a "Health Enterprise Zone."

The HEZ is being created to try new and innovative community-based approaches to health care, and reward approaches that reduce health disparities, improve health outcomes, and stabilize and reduce health care costs.

The HEZ will focus on four goals:

• Innovation: Developing, deploying, and coordinating human and technological resources to improve and elevate the social, economic, and health outcomes for North Philadelphia.
• Investment: Redirecting and investing resources into core infrastructure institutions to achieve long-term health, stability, and sustainability in the zone.
• Incentive: Aligning public and private capital and financial models to properly resource community, staff, and institutions within the zone to affect short and long-term change.
• Integration: Focusing on coordination of efforts, reducing duplication, improving quality, and promoting economies of scale.

The process for achieving those goals will involve the formation of committees to conduct a “gap analysis” that looks at the strengths and weaknesses of the current health care system in North Philadelphia — where Temple University Health System, Einstein Healthcare Network and Tenet Healthcare (NYSE: THC) all operate hospitals. These committees will examine impacts and approaches of state and local government, the health care industry, educational institutions, community groups and technology. The findings will be released in a March 2017 preliminary report.

“By bringing together government, health care providers, hospitals, philanthropy and community stakeholders, we hope to increase access, improve quality, and reduce health disparities for North Philadelphia families,” said Ted Dallas, secretary of the state Department of Human Services.

Philadelphia Mayor Jim Kenney said current residents of North Philadelphia — nearly 300,000 of whom are Medicaid recipients — experience lower life expectancies and higher rates of obesity, diabetes and heart disease than those found in other parts of the city.

“We need to work collaboratively with system partners to make life better for those who live here,” Kenney said.

As part of the intitiative, up to $1.5 million will be made available to Philadelphia from the state Department of Education to improve access to higher quality health care in cooperation with the Mayor’s Community Schools Initiative.

“Research shows that good health can have a tremendous impact on student academic growth by reducing absenteeism, easing disciplinary issues, and improving a student’s ability to focus and learn,” said state Department of Education Secretary Pedro Rivera. “Introducing school-based health services can help ensure students have access to the routine and preventative care that will help them grow academically, physically, and socially.”

Source: Philadelphia Business Journal