North Carolinians often face barriers to receiving the healthcare they need when they are diagnosed with a serious illness.
Delayed diagnoses, prior authorization for insurance coverage and burdensome regulations can lead to lags in critical treatments, procedures and medications, sometimes with life-altering consequences.
In 2024, Novant Health introduced the Novant Health Center for Public Policy Solutions as a groundbreaking initiative to tackle these and other pressing healthcare issues.
Led by clinicians on the frontlines, the Center conducts independent research on healthcare policy issues that impact care delivery and health system performance and makes recommendations to improve care coordination, reduce administrative burdens, and enhance patient outcomes.
“We created the Center to identify and research public policy solutions for issues creating barriers to care or that could improve care – and we focus, in particular, on those that aren’t widely covered,” says Elizabeth Outten, Vice President for Public Affairs and Government Relations at Novant Health. “We want to surface the issues that can directly ensure patients have the care they need and expect, and doctors and other clinicians can do what they were trained to do.”
As the leader of the Novant Health Center for Public Policy Solutions, Outten drives strategy and oversees initiatives that advance clinician-informed public policy. Under her leadership, the Center partners with community leaders and federal, state, and local officials to improve access, affordability, and delivery of health care.
Healthcare policy decisions directly impact patients. Policies determine the cost, accessibility, and quality of care patients receive, influencing their access to treatments and ensuring their safety. Policies also establish standards for consistency, promote evidence-based practices, and define patient rights and responsibilities, ultimately shaping the overall patient experience and health outcomes.
Recognizing that health policy is frequently unclear and constantly evolving, the Center has created a steering committee and a team of fellows who provide the expertise necessary to identify real patient challenges and transform them into actionable recommendations.
The Center’s Healthcare Defined series further cuts through this complexity by providing clear, accessible explanations of essential healthcare terms, frameworks and issues, including population health programs, sepsis definitions, medical coding systems, and guidance for avoiding waste, fraud, and abuse.
These resources empower policymakers and their teams to make informed decisions by providing statistics, medical terminology, rationale for enacting change, and stories that put a human face on the impacts of policy decisions.
We want to surface the issues that can directly ensure patients have the care they need and expect, and doctors and other clinicians can do what they were trained to do.
Elizabeth Outten, Vice President for Public Affairs and Government Relations
The Center has also published two white papers addressing measures to protect access to care and improve patient outcomes.
Making Annual Wellness Visits Work: Policy recommendations to enable comprehensive health management during annual visits published in December 2023, outlines practical, targeted solutions lawmakers and other policymakers can enact to protect access to care, starting with changes that would address an often-overlooked issue that is consistently at the top of the list for clinicians and patients alike — regulatory requirements surrounding annual checkups.
While patients often use their annual check-up to discuss health concerns or chronic conditions like diabetes, high blood pressure or even depression, advice or treatment for them is often not covered as a part of an annual physical. As a result, clinicians are unable to address those conditions or complaints during the exam without triggering the addition of a concurrent visit and subsequently a bill. This undermines the patient’s expectation of a no-cost wellness visit.
Frontline practitioners told the Center that one solution to annual visit challenges would be to guarantee insurers cover chronic condition management and address acute health concerns during annual wellness checkups.
The Center’s other white paper, Reducing sepsis risk: The role of public policy in protecting patients, was published in September 2024, calling for states to enact policies that ensure consistent clinical standards and protocols for diagnosing and treating sepsis. More details can be found here.
Nationwide, more than 1.7 million people are diagnosed with sepsis, and 350,000 adults die each year. With 11.4 deaths per 100,000 individuals, North Carolina is among the 15 states with the highest sepsis mortality rates, according to 2022 CDC data.
Last June, the bipartisan SEPSIS Act was reintroduced in Congress, requiring coordinated action, better data collection, and partnership between agencies and frontline healthcare teams.
The white paper offers practical state-level solutions that complement the federal legislation. It also recommends setting statutory and regulatory standards for sepsis care based on the clinical criteria endorsed by practicing medical experts with the greatest potential to save lives.
By moving beyond theory and driving action on public policy, the Novant Health Center for Public Policy Solutions addresses the issues that matter most to both clinicians and patients. Using the latest research, direct expertise, and collective experience as a leading health system the Center is poised to enable human-centric solutions at all levels of government.
Novant Health is a not-for-profit integrated network of hospitals, physician clinics, and outpatient facilities across North Carolina and South Carolina. The network includes more than 1,900 physicians and nearly 40,000 team members who provide care at more than 800 locations, including 19 hospitals and hundreds of outpatient facilities and physician clinics.
