Health

Governors play an essential role in addressing the health needs of the public across all domains. NGA’s Center for Best Practices supports Governors’ offices in addressing emerging public health crises, improving access and quality of care for behavioral health and substance use disorders, and finding ways to innovate healthcare delivery.

To support Governors’ priorities, the NGA Health Team provides information, research synthesis, policy analysis, technical assistance, special projects, and resources to Governors and their staff on a variety of health topics including: public health infrastructure, chronic and infectious diseases, rural health issues, healthcare workforce, cost and coverage issues, behavioral health, health equity, and maternal and child health. NGA also provides special opportunities for states and territories to engage in more in-depth technical assistance such as through policy academies, learning collaboratives, workshops, and roundtables on pressing policy issues. With an emphasis on finding equitable solutions to some of the most demanding health issues, Governors establish partnerships, utilize state and territorial resources, and work across multiple sectors and state/territory agencies to develop and promote relationships to improve the public’s health. In addition to providing timely and individualized Governors’ office-focused technical assistance to Governors, their health advisors, and state and territory agency leadership, our team is working to aid Governors and health leaders in state and territory wide transformation efforts to build and improve the nation’s health through transformation efforts.

Services

  • Strategic planning facilitation and best practice guidance on health topics or initiatives
  • Annual HHS Advisors Institute for state/territory leaders on emerging health issues
  • Regular communications and briefings to health policy advisors on health topics
  • Customized research briefs and best practice presentations upon request
  • Strategic guidance, feedback, and meeting facilitation support to relevant advisors
  • Coordinating groups such as the Health Policy Advisors Network, Opioid State Action Network (OSAN), Medicaid Advisors Network, etc…

NGA Health Networks

  • Health Equity Learning Network – In 2023, the NGA Center convened states and territories to discuss approaches and communication strategies regarding health equity. With support from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF), the NGA Center for Best Practices launched the “NGA Health Equity Learning Network.” The learning network is an opportunity for Governors’ offices and their health leaders to address health equity priorities. The learning network will focus on state and territory best practices related to health equity policy across several populations, including people with disabilities, racially and ethnically marginalized groups, and rural communities.
  • Health Policy Advisors Network – The Health Policy Advisors Network convenes Governor’s advisors on critical challenges in health impacting their states or territories. Through monthly calls that foster collaboration, the network is able to be a platform for sharing insights, strategies, and best practices for an evolving health landscape. 
  • Medicaid Advisors Network – The Medicaid Advisors Network brings together Governors’ Medicaid advisors and Medicaid state agency policy analysts to discuss key regulations and analyze the impacts on states and territories through a series of capacity building tools such as monthly roundtables, technical assistance and resource sharing. Members of the network focus on sustainable funding solutions, improving quality of care for Medicaid beneficiaries, and closing gaps in access to care. 
  • Opioid State Action Network – The Opioid State Action Network is comprised of Governor’s office staff (including policy advisors for criminal justice and health) and state officials from departments of public safety, corrections, health, behavioral health, Medicaid, and other related agencies. This network convenes to discuss critical new developments in opioid litigation and state policy. 

Focus Areas

  • Addressing Infectious Diseases Related to SUD/OUD
  • Adverse Childhood Experiences and Trauma
  • Cost and Coverage
  • Disease Prevention and Management
  • Health Equity
  • Health Workforce
  • Maternal and Child Health
  • Medicaid
  • Population Health
  • Public Health Infrastructure
  • Social Drivers of Health
  • Substance Use and Substance Use Disorder

Meet the Team

  • Marianne Gibson, Program Director
  • Brittney Roy-Morales, Program Director
  • Alex Entner, Policy Analyst
  • Anna Heard, Senior Policy Analyst
  • Asia Riviere, Policy Analyst
  • Chyenne Tran, Policy Analyst
  • Grace Burns, Policy Coordinator

Improving Maternal and Child Health in Rural America

With generous support from the Health Resources and Services Administration, Merck for Mothers, Pritzker Family Foundation, and March of Dimes, The National Governors Association Center for Best Practices launched a Learning Collaborative in March 2024 to support nine Governors’ offices as they work to improve maternal and child health (MCH) outcomes. The Collaborative supports the growth and development of state and territory-level, rural MCH initiatives. States currently participate in the Collaborative include: Alabama, American Samoa, Illinois, Michigan, Missouri, Nevada, Pennsylvania, Virginia, and Washington. Learn more…


NextGen Healthcare Workforce Project Year 3

NGA launched the Next Generation of the Healthcare Workforce project in 2022 with support from HRSA. The project supports Governors’ offices and other senior state officials in implementing strategies to strengthen and grow the next generation of the healthcare workforce. Year three of this project will focus on a policy academy and learning network to lay the foundation for new initiatives, funding opportunities, or administrative policies for improving healthcare workforce. Learn more…


Health Equity Learning Network

In 2023, the NGA Center convened states to discuss approaches and communication strategies regarding health equity. In 2024, the NGA Center will facilitate a learning network of states and territories interested in advancing their health equity goals. Learn more…


Towards Epidemic Preparedness

Through the “Towards Epidemic Preparedness: Enhancing Public Health Infrastructure and Incorporating Data-Driven Tools project, the National Governors Association Center for Best Practices (NGA Center) seeks to build on its strong history of working across sectors in a bipartisan fashion to support the needs of the U.S. Governors and their trusted advisors in 55 states and territories. Specifically, the NGA Center is supporting Governors and other senior state officials by providing technical assistance, and engaging Governors’ advisors to identify best practices for implementing forecasting models to predict infectious disease outbreaks and empower response. This project is in collaboration with the Center for Outbreak Response Innovation (CORI) at Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security


NGA Health Libraries

Behavioral Health

Six Strategies for Reducing Prescription Drug Abuse

The abuse of prescription drugs is the fastest growing drug problem in the United States, and is the most common type of drug abuse after marijuana use among teens between ...

Healthcare Delivery

State Options Under ACA Section 1332

Section 1332 of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) gives states significant flexibility to change many elements of their individual and small group private health insurance markets. The ACA provided flexibility ...

State Insurance Marketplace Options

States have regulatory oversight authority over large portions of their private health insurance markets. The NGA Center for Best Practices (NGA Center) works with states to help them understand the ...

Data, Privacy and Interoperability

New and innovative health care delivery and the payment infrastructure to support those reforms must be built on the interoperable exchange of health data. Interoperable health data exchange requires that ...

Interagency Collaboration Toward Population Health

The current conversation about how to reform the nation’s health care system centers on the important task of finding ways to pay for and delivery high quality care that leads ...

Data-Informed Policy

Data can serve as an extremely powerful tool to set governors’ priorities and inform their decision-making. State leaders are in a unique position to use data to create policies that ...

State Health Innovations and State Innovation Models

Through the State Innovation Models (SIM) initiative, 38 states (including territories and the District of Columbia) have received financial and technical support from the federal government to design or test ...

Public Health

States Develop Strategies for Public Health Preparedness, Response

WASHINGTON—The National Governors Association (NGA) today announced that six states, Arizona, Hawaii, Illinois, New Jersey, Oregon and West Virginia, have been selected to participate in a workshop where they will develop strategic action plans to implement during ...

NGA Announces New Projects To Combat Opioid Epidemic

WASHINGTON—The National Governors Association (NGA) today announced two new projects aimed at helping states combat the effects of the nationwide opioid epidemic. Twelve states have been selected to participate in ...

Governors’ Recommendations for Federal Action to End the Nation’s Opioid Crisis

Opioids continue to fuel the worst drug overdose epidemic in our nation’s history, claiming the lives of 115 individuals every day and devastating families and communities across the country. Governors ...

Governors Release Recommendations for Addressing Opioid Epidemic

WASHINGTON—The National Governors Association (NGA) today released recommendations to Congress and the Administration calling for action to bolster the federal response to the opioid crisis. “The opioid and heroin epidemic ...

States Focus on Improving Health Care in Rural America

The National Governors Association has selected six states—Alabama, Arizona, Indiana, Louisiana, Missouri and Oregon—to participate in a project called Improving Health in Rural America: Addressing the Leading Causes of Death. Specifically, states will develop and implement ...

NGA Holds Policy Event, Releases Complex Care Road Map for States

WASHINGTON—The National Governors Association Center for Best Practices (NGA Center) Health Division hosted an event at the National Press Club to discuss its new report, Building Complex Care Programs: A Road ...
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