G-2107-17119

FIHI is Florida’s Public Health Institute that facilitates data-driven, results-based collaborative action and conducts community-focused research and evaluation while providing impartial analysis of policy impacts on health and collective well-being.  

CareQuest Institute has historically supported FIHI to facilitate the statewide Florida Oral Health Alliance, which is a group of state level and grassroots partners, including other CareQuest Institute grantees. FIHI has additionally led an MDI pilot putting a hygienist in a pediatric practice to capitalize on some of the historical shifts in Florida Medicaid. Most recently they published a Florida Oral Health Consumer Engagement Report that weaves together community and consumer perspectives, health impact analyses, and oral health policy priorities for the state.  

With this proposal, FIHI wants to leverage the recently published consumer engagement report as a jumping off point to drive consumer capacity and policy advocacy in the state focused on oral health equity. To do this, they will continue to grow the oral health infrastructure in the state through the Florida Oral Health Alliance and engage key partners in advancing policy priorities identified through the report. To strengthen the capacity of consumers, particularly Medicaid beneficiaries in the state, FIHI will build an online consumer engagement toolkit that will equip providers and patients with the resources and skills needed to both navigate the oral health system and advocate for equitable oral health policies. As a complement to the toolkit, FIHI will build a companion tool that will allow partners in other states to replicate these efforts relative to their own state Medicaid program.

Lastly, FIHI will partner with the American Dental Education Association (ADEA) to design a national continuing education course to strengthen providers capacity to oral health providers to treat children with special healthcare needs. This opportunity has grown out of a long-standing relationship between FIHI and ADEA and builds on the 2020 CODA requirement for 2020 predoctoral dental programs to educate students on managing patients with intellectual disabilities.

One strategy that will cross through each of these areas of work is the continued growth and maintenance of FIHI’s Parent Advisory Committee (PAC) which is made of parents who are Medicaid beneficiaries or who have children who are Medicaid beneficiaries. This strategy will be critical to ensuring a stakeholder voice is at the center of their work.

The original budget amount for this proposal was $204,485. The Internal Review committee felt that the original scope of work in the proposal was quite broad and would benefit from alignment around a few key priority areas. After additional discussions with FIHI, they landed on the priorities listed above. With the proposal adaptations, the recommendation is to fund in the amount of $150,000.

The total budget for FIHI is $450,000, and so this grant represents about 33% of their total budget.