HD570 Unit 8 Resource Proposal Example

$92,160 Against $1.46 Million: A Unit 8 Resource Proposal Asking Health Plan Leadership for a Bilingual Educator and Two-Way Texting

[Student Name]

Purdue University Global

HD570: Health Education Leadership and Management

Unit 8 Resource Proposal

[Instructor Name]

[Date]

Ashcombe Health Plan, its withhold, measure rates and projections are composite; the text messaging, postpartum care and interpreter sources cited are real.

Proposal

To: Chief Operating Officer and Chief Quality Officer From: Manager, Health Education Re: Postpartum measure: request for $92,160 a year

Request. Fund one bilingual (Spanish and English) health educator at $81,920 a year including benefits, and expand the texting platform to two-way postpartum messaging in English and Spanish at $10,240 a year. Total: $92,160.

What is at stake. The state withholds a share of the plan's capitation and returns it based on quality results. About $1.46 million depends on the postpartum visit measure. The plan's rate is 67.3 percent; the target is 73.5 percent. With about 4,100 births a year among members, closing the 6.2-point gap means about 254 more mothers completing a timely postpartum visit.

What the money buys. The department now reaches about 45 percent of Spanish-speaking postpartum members, because only one educator speaks Spanish. A second bilingual educator would raise that to about 95 percent. In the plan's own data, members reached by outreach complete a postpartum visit at 74 percent, against 62 percent for members not reached. Applying that 12-point difference to about 700 additional Spanish-speaking members reached gives roughly 84 more visits. Two-way texting for all postpartum members, with reminders and a reply option to book, is estimated to add about 3 points across the plan, or roughly 123 visits; text reminders have been widely used to improve attendance in health services (Schwebel & Larimer, 2018). Together: about 207 visits, or about 5 points of the 6.2-point gap.

If the plan's withhold is returned in proportion to progress toward the target, closing even half the projected gain would return several times the cost of the request in the first year, and closing none of it would cost the plan far more than the request.

Return. If only half the projected gain is realized, about 2.5 points, the plan would recover roughly $590,000 of withhold, assuming proportional return. If the full projection holds, about $1.18 million. The request is $92,160.

Why it matters beyond the measure. Postpartum visits are the main opportunity to address conditions such as hypertension and depression after birth, and many mothers miss them (Tully et al., 2017). Roughly one member in three chooses Spanish for plan communications; outreach in their language is more effective than interpreted calls and reduces miscommunication (Karliner et al., 2007).

Risks. The projected effects come from the plan's own observational data, in which members who are reached may differ from those who are not, so the 12-point difference may overstate what outreach causes. Hiring may take three months, so the first year's gain will be smaller. Texting depends on accurate phone numbers, which about 15 percent of postpartum members lack.

Checkpoint. At six months, the department will report Spanish outreach coverage, text response rates and the postpartum measure's interim rate. If coverage has not reached 80 percent and the interim rate has not moved, leadership can end the texting expansion and reconsider the position at the next budget cycle.

What leadership is not asked to fund. A third component, a daily delivery notice from the plan's largest hospital, would let outreach start within days of birth instead of about five weeks. It requires no new money and is being negotiated separately.

Alternatives Considered

The department considered three cheaper options. Contracting a vendor for Spanish outreach calls would cost about the same per hour but without local knowledge or continuity, and vendors in the region have struggled with postpartum calls that require booking help. Using the interpreter line for all Spanish calls would cost about $44,650 a year in interpreter charges and still require English-speaking educators' time. Expanding texting alone, at $10,240, would help but would not reach members who need a conversation to book a visit. The proposal combines the most effective option with the least expensive, and each part can be ended separately if it does not perform.

Notes on the Proposal

The proposal leads with the request and keeps health arguments secondary because leadership decides budgets on the plan's obligations. It states its assumptions and offers a checkpoint so that leaders can approve it without betting the full amount on projections.

References

Karliner, L. S., Jacobs, E. A., Chen, A. H., & Mutha, S. (2007). Do professional interpreters improve clinical care for patients with limited English proficiency? A systematic review of the literature. Health Services Research, 42(2), 727-754. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1475-6773.2006.00629.x

Schwebel, F. J., & Larimer, M. E. (2018). Using text message reminders in health care services: A narrative literature review. Internet Interventions, 13, 82-104. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.invent.2018.06.002

Tully, K. P., Stuebe, A. M., & Verbiest, S. B. (2017). The fourth trimester: A critical transition period with unmet maternal health needs. American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology, 217(1), 37-41. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ajog.2017.03.032