LibGuides: Health Literacy for Interprofessional Education (IPE) eToolkit: Health Policy for Health Literacy

National Action Plan to Improve Health Literacy

"The National Action Plan to Improve Health Literacy envisions a restructuring of the ways we create and disseminate all types of health information in this country. The plan also calls us to ensure that all children graduate with health literacy skills that will help them live healthier throughout their lifespan. " From the Forward by Howard k. Koh, M.D., M.P.H., Assistant Secretary for Health. Citation: U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Office of Disease Prevention and Health Promotion. (2010). National Action Plan to Improve Health Literacy. Washington, DC: Author.

A Proposed ‘Health Literate Care Model’ Would Constitute A Systems Approach To Improving Patients’ Engagement In Care

A Proposed ‘Health Literate Care Model’ Would Constitute A Systems Approach To Improving Patients’ Engagement In Care. By Howard K. Koh, Cindy Brach, Linda M. Harris and Michael L. Parchman. Author Manuscript at: HHS Public Access, PubMed Central. Published in final edited form as: Health Aff (Millwood). 2013 Feb;32(2):357-67. doi: 10.1377/hlthaff.2012.1205. PMID: 23381529.

CDC’s Health Literacy Action Plan

CDC’s Health Literacy Action Plan
CDC shares its health literacy action plan to highlight its organizational objective to create and share understandable health information and make public health services accessible to all. CDC says, “We need this plan because limited health literacy is a national public health issue that affects almost 9 of 10 adults.”

Healthy People 2030

Healthy People 2030
A project of the Office of Disease Prevention and Health Promotion, Healthy People provides science-based, 10-year national objectives for improving the health of all Americans. For decades, Healthy People has established benchmarks and monitored progress over time in order to:
* Encourage collaborations across communities and sectors.
* Empower individuals toward making informed health decisions.
* Measure the impact of prevention activities.
The vision of Healthy People 2030 is: A society in which all people can achieve their full potential for health and well-being across the lifespan. Towards that end, Healthy People 2030 includes a foundational principle to guide decisions that states "achieving health and well-being requires eliminating health disparities, achieving health equity, and attaining health literacy".

Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS)

CMS (Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services) Quality Strategy 2016
The CMS (Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services) Quality Strategy guides the activities of all agency components working together toward healthcare transformation and includes the important aspect of addressing health literacy.
CMS Person and Family Engagement Strategy. Final. November 2016.
The purpose of the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) Person and Family Engagement (PFE) Strategic Plan is to guide the meaningful and intentional implementation of person and family engagement throughout CMS policies and programs. This plan lays the foundation for expanding awareness and guidance on person and family engagement by providing goals and objectives that are effective, sustainable and scalable. While this plan supports the implementation of the CMS Quality Strategy Goal 2: Strengthen persons and families as partners in their care, it is also a foundational component to achieving the overarching CMS strategy. Addressing health literacy is a central tenant of the CMS Strategy.

Joint Commission

The Joint Commission accredits and certifies nearly 21,000 health care organizations and programs in the United States. It addresses the health literacy aspects of patient care within its accreditation and certification standards, e.g. requiring hospitals to assess a patient's learning needs including barriers and limitations, then tailoring patient education accordingly.

It published “What Did the Doctor Say?:” Improving Health Literacy to Protect Patient Safety" as a call to action on this important aspect of patient safety and quality of care. Published in 2007, the Joint Commission considers this a historical health equity document but it continues to provide compelling insights into the problem of health literacy and offers still relevant solutions.