G-2105-17002

Hawai’i Public Health Institute (HIPHI) is a non-profit hub for health, bringing community-based organizations, government, academia, foundations and business together to improve the quality of life for the people of Hawai’i. HIPHI also serves as the backbone for the Hawai’i Oral Health Coalition.

In our short history with HIPHI, the bulk of the focus of their work has been to partner with the Hawai’i Children’s Action Network in building momentum towards the passage of a Medicaid adult dental benefit. The result of this was that, in 2020, the HI legislature was on the precipice of passing adult dental benefit legislation but was removed as a result of COVID-19 and potential budget shortfalls that were looming.

This proposal falls under the Advancing Equity funding initiative, and the Strengthen Community Voice and State Advocacy sub-initiative and seeks to influence policy related to Medicaid adult dental benefits and social determinants in the state. Additionally, HIPHI will implement a statewide environment scan to assess the gaps and opportunities as it relates to teledentistry, medical-dental integration, and the oral health workforce with the intent to drive new models of person-centered care. These efforts are built on a significant amount of momentum and support that has been built throughout the state, and within their growing oral health coalition, for passage of an adult dental benefit. HIPHI will implement a statewide Public Opinion Poll and Legislative/Candidate survey as a means for gathering data to support advocacy efforts, while partnering with the other CareQuest Institute grantee in the state to drive collective action. HIPHI will partner with the CareQuest Institute to design a statewide environmental scan tool and will share the results within their network to drive future policy and regulatory change towards oral health value-based care, as well as outside of the state to support replication of the process in other states. Additionally, they will engage around a specific window of opportunity to influence sugar sweetened beverage tax policy, as a driver of the social determinants of health, and as a potential new funding source for supporting chronic disease management within public health. Lastly, there will be intentional efforts to bring in new provider voices to the coalition to compliment the grassroots and state advocacy partners.

The budget for this proposal is $133,392, which primarily goes to staff time, travel, and supplies associated with the deliverables.

The total organizational budget for HIPHI is about $2M, which means that this grant would represent about 7% of the organizational budget.