Hello all,
After attending one of our health literacy awareness presentations last, I was approached by the Legislative Budget Board of Texas who are requesting state-wide policy recommendations for health literacy. The employee's role within the Legislative Budget Board who requested my suggestion is to write policy reports for the legislature that analyze and recommend specific policy changes at the state level that improve state government. She asked me for specific recommendations for changes to statute or the budget, or policies that other states have implemented to improve health literacy and/or mediate the implications of low health literacy.
We could take an adult ed or healthcare provider/system angle here.
This is a great opportunity for Texas and I'd love this groups input and suggestions for anything that has or has not worked in other states/nations.
Thank you in advance for your support on this!
Sincerely,
Peter Morrison
Health Literacy Forward/Literacy Coalition of Central Texas
pmorrison@willread.org, 512-735-2531
Comments
Hi Peter,
One thing that comes to mind at the state level is the opportunity to mandate a larger font size on Rx bottle labels. In California, legislation requiring a 12 point font was watered down to 10 point font. Small fonts are cited as contributing to accidental drug overdose and medication errors, particularly among the elderly. It is my understanding that Texas also falls into the 10 point font camp.
What a wonderful opportunity you have to influence patient engagement at the policy level! Please keep the listserv posted.
Sincerely,
Jennifer Pearce
Jennifer Pearce, MPA
Health Literacy Consultant
Sutter Center for Integrated Care
pearcej1@sutterhealth.org
(925) 348-0352
Hi Peter,
What a great opportunity! It would be great to take both angles: adult ed and health side.Here are a few random ideas on getting more info:
The National Coalition for Literacy
Check out their website. They support advocacy for adult education issues and are involved in health literacy as well. They may be able to lead you to some specific policy changes that have been made.
http://www.national-coalition-literacy.org/wae_health.html
The National Action Plan to Improve Health Literacy
I know you are familiar with this. Maybe taking a close look at the goals and objectives here will give you some ideas.
http://www.health.gov/communication/hlactionplan/
The Emergence of Health Literacy as a Public Policy Priority: From Research to Consensus to Action
This article may be helpful.
http://lincs.ed.gov/professional-development/resource-collections/profile-321
I also know that some states like Massachusetts have included health literacy items in the curriculum frameworks for adult education.
A couple ideas from Wisconsin:
- We were able to get health literacy into our 10-year state health plan. This has helped when we apply for grant funding that requires alignment with the state health plan. I think it has also helped promote broader awareness of health literacy as a public health issue.
- Our state Office of the Commissioner of Insurance recently repealed a regulation that required all insurance policies in Wisconsin to be written at the 10th grade reading level, stating that it was too difficult for insurance companies to comply. This regulation was originally developed with bi-partisan support and input from both the literacy and health care fields. We have lobbied (unsuccessfully) to maintain the 10th grade standard (which was already a compromise). I would look into if there is anything similar you can do at the state level to make sure the language in your insurance policies is more understandable.
- Try to get your State Board of Pharmacy to adopt (or require adoption of) the new USP standards for patient-centered medication labeling. We are also working on this in our state.