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Read a detailed summary of the FY26 Senate Appropriations Bill, which was released on July 31.

The Senate released its version of the FY25 LHHS appropriation bill on August 1, 2024, with significant changes in proposed public health funding than the House's proposed bill.

ASTHO Legislative Prospectus | Previewing 2025 state legislative actions on data modernization and privacy.

Sustaining DMI: Leveraging Medicaid to Advance Public Health Data and Surveillance A primer for states: leveraging Medicaid to design and execute a sustainable DMI. This primer describes how to leverage Medicaid to design and execute a sustainable data modernization initiative (DMI). It provides guidance, resources, and practical tools for effective management, strategic planning, and skill development to strengthen sustainability planning. Get the Report (PDF) website yes

Policy Options to Improve Data Sharing Between State and Local Health Departments Organizational policies on data sharing between state and local public health agencies. This report explores organizational policies related to data sharing between state and local public health departments. ASTHO, in collaboration with the National Association of County and City Health Officials and the Network for Public Health Law developed this report, which aims to serve as a guide for state and local public health leaders as they consider organizational policy options to improve state and local data-sharing efforts. Get the Report (PDF) website yes

Investing in Indiana’s Public Health Infrastructure Through Community-Driven Policy Change public health infrastructure, community driven policy, indiana state health commissioner, public health system, indiana department of health, outpatient facilities, technical assistance, data and information integration, emergency preparedness, child and adolescent health, legislative action, state and local elected officials, health problems, health care, health system, health departments, federal agencies, essential public health services, centers for disease control, state and local levels, health outcomes, health organization, covid-19 pandemic, health infrastructure, promoting health, public health organizations, states public health, federal funding, astho, association of state and territorial health officials Maggie Davis, Keith Coleman Indiana enacts historic public health funding through community engagement and legislative support. In April 2023, Indiana passed bill SB 4, which was a historic investment in the state's public health funding and restructuring its public health system. This case study shares how the Governor's Public Health Commission and the Indiana Department of Health approached community listening sessions, formulated recommendations, and successfully built legislative support to reform the public health system in the state. Get the Report (PDF) website yes

This ASTHOReport highlights the public health importance of three harm reduction policies and practices to reduce overdoses: facilitating community distribution of naloxone, facilitating community distribution of fentanyl test strips, and overdose prevention centers.

Two reports explore opportunities for improved public health action through immunization data sharing with health information exchanges, in addition to the broader legal landscape of public health data.

Project ECHO: Overdose Fatality Investigation Techniques (OD-FIT) Project ECHO: Overdose Fatality Investigation Techniques (OD-FIT) provides coroners, medical examiners, toxicologists, forensic pathologists, and public health personnel opportunities to learn and share their overdose investigation expertise with peers across the United States and territories. Coroners and medical examiners are called after a fatal overdose to investigate the cause and manner of death. Public health agencies and practitioners use this mortality data to better understand trends in fatal overdoses and to inform the allocation of resources, such as fentanyl test strips and naloxone in states with high rates of overdose deaths.  Project ECHO: Overdose Fatality Investigation Techniques (OD-FIT) is a collaboration between ASTHO and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to provide coroners, medical examiners, toxicologists, forensic pathologists, and public health personnel with an opportunity to learn and share their overdose investigation expertise with peers across the United States and territories. By strengthening the medicolegal death investigation system, state and territorial health agencies can improve the accuracy and reliability of overdose death data to benefit public health and safety programs, law enforcement investigations, and upstream prevention strategies.  Project ECHO OD-FIT consists of live online sessions featuring didactic presentations followed by case study discussions. Didactic recordings and accompanying resources from the most recent series can be found below. website no False

What I Wish I Knew Before Linking Data ASTHO, Association of State and Territorial Health Officials, linking data, data linkage, family and child health, public health, data linkage research, public health agencies, north Carolina, children's data network, child welfare indicators, california health and human services, child welfare, child welfare policy, maternal and child health, alaska division of public health, analytics and epidemiology, data analysis, applied surveillance, data systems, child protection, birth data, vital records, medicaid data, record registries, child advocacy, data pieces, connecting records, data sources, medical histories 45:57 Data linkage experts share insights and recommendations for leveraging data linkage projects to explore and make an impact on public health issues. PH Conversations Series - What I Wish I Knew Before Linking Data This episode features a conversation between two data linkage experts—Jared Parrish, PhD, MS, and Emily Putnam-Hornstein, PhD—highlighting their lessons learned and sharing recommendations for those seeking to use data linkage projects to examine key public health issues, such as: The thought process behind choosing which datasets to link, which linkage tools and methods to use, and how to bring intentionality to these choices when considering a research question. The benefits of using data linkage to enhance datasets and build a comprehensive and robust collection of information for new insights. Lessons learned for navigating data linkages with important considerations for preparation, analysis, and the uses of data linkage. Show Notes Interviewer Stephany Strahle, MPH, Maternal and Child Health Contractor, ASTHO Guests Jared Parrish, PhD, Senior Epidemiologist, State of Alaska, DHSS, Division of Public Health Emily Putnam-Hornstein, PhD, Distinguished Professor for Children in Need, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill <!-- Resources Braiding and Layering Funding to Address the Social Determinants of Health --> PHC Podcast Transcript - What I Wish I Knew Before Linking Data website yes

This report shares Puerto Rico’s strategy and recommendations for developing a social determinants of health dashboard.

ASTHO Profile data shows how public health agencies are adopting AI, revealing policy gaps, workforce challenges, and uneven use across states.

Sustaining DMI: Conditions for Enhanced Funding How state Medicaid agencies can receive enhanced federal funding for certain expenditures. What are the Conditions for Enhanced Funding? Why are they important? The Conditions for Enhanced Funding (CEF) are a series of federal requirements that states must meet to receive federal financial participation. If a state Medicaid agency (SMA) meets the CEF and couples them with measurable outcomes and metrics that improve the Medicaid program, it can receive enhanced funding at the rate of 90% to design, develop, or implement a Medicaid Enterprise Systems (MES) module or at 75% to operate and maintain an MES module. Each state operates an MES to manage its Medicaid data and run its program. Increasingly, SMAs’ MES are composed of independent modules in categories such as eligibility and enrollment and financial management. An SMA that uses these funds can build a strong financial foundation for a data modernization initiative and can secure reliable funding to better sustain the initiative. How can states receive enhancing funding to design, develop, implement, or operate and maintain an MES module? To receive enhanced federal funding, SMAs must collaborate with the federal government from the original implementation of their MES module and throughout its operations and maintenance. Frequently, SMAs begin the MES development journey through a request for planning funds. Planning activities include assessing impact, conducting a Medicaid Information Technology Architecture self-assessment, convening work groups to identify potential system enhancements, and exploring outcomes and metrics. These plans often are converted into requests for design, development, and implementation funding. The 90% funding match for design, development, and implementation could cover the performance of system fixes, establishing connectivity and interfaces, developing business continuity plans, software leasing, configuring off-the-shelf software, and ongoing planning activities. To receive the 75% funding match for operation and maintenance of an MES module, the state must have its module certified by and continuously report operational metrics to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS). After certification, the SMA can receive enhanced federal funding to support security updates, software leasing or licensing, portal and technology maintenance and operation, and training for personnel engaged in the operation of the MES. Although these eligible activities are diverse, states should ultimately meet seven conditions for enhanced funding (Table 1): Modularity Medicaid Information Technology Architecture (MITA) Industry standards Technology reuse and sharing Business processes Reports Interoperability Table - Resource - Sustaining DMI: Conditions for Enhanced Funding What best practices should states consider when seeking enhanced funding? If an SMA meets the CEF and couples them with measurable outcomes that improve the Medicaid program, it can receive enhanced funding. Public health data modernization initiatives and their ongoing support may be eligible for enhanced federal funding through the Medicaid program. Best practices include: Start the Streamlined Modular Certification early. Certification is a crucial piece of CEF and requires many interrelated activities. States should use the intake form to enter information about MES certification and CMS-required outcomes to develop documentation of their compliance with regulations applicable to their Medicaid-based data modernization initiative, state-specific outcomes, and metrics. The intake form can be used to show that the project is achieving outcomes on a continuous basis. Become familiar with CEF best practices. CMS highlights several best practices for successfully engaging with CEF. States should become familiar with this guidance to help them complete various required forms and documentation, understand connected activities, create realistic timelines, prevent duplication of work, identify efficiencies, and more. Identify outcomes that are feasible to achieve and measure and improve the Medicaid and public health programs. Some outcomes can take years to appear and intensive research and resources to measure. A state should identify outcomes that are feasible to achieve and measure based on its Medicaid-based data modernization initiative, available resources, staff capacity, and other factors. This includes setting measure targets that, when reached in the designated time, collectively provide proof that there is progress toward achieving Medicaid and public health outcomes. website yes

Technical assistance for procuring software to support data dashboard development.

Environmental Public Health Tracking Fellowship Program ASTHO's Environmental Public Health Tracking: Peer-to-Peer Fellowship Program, in partnership with CDC, offers non-funded health agencies the opportunity to conduct pilot projects on environmental health issues of importance to their communities, receive mentorship from current CDC grantees, and become familiar with CDC standards and resources for environmental public health tracking. On this page are ASTHO and partner resources highlighting the program’s successes. Tracking Resources Poster Overview of ASTHO's Tracking Fellowship Program (PDF) This poster provides an overview of the impact and successes of ASTHO’s Environmental Public Health Tracking Fellowship. Fellowship Program Factsheet (PDF) This factsheet highlights achievement and success stories from ASTHO’s Environmental Public Health Tracking Fellowship. Building Capacity, Building Community: ASTHO's EPHT Fellowship Reaches the U.S. Territories (PDF) This two-page fact sheet shares successes and lessons learned from the Program’s first reverse site-visit to a territorial health agency. <!-- ASTHO Environmental Public Health Tracking Fellowship Program: 2002-2019 Environmental Public Health Tracking 101 The National Environmental Public Health Tracking Network (Tracking Network) brings together health data and environmental data from national, state, and city sources and provides supporting information to make the data easier to understand. The Tracking Network has data and information on environments and hazards, health effects, and population health. Embed-EH PH Tracking Fellowship Program ARCGIS --> website no

Initial estimates from 2020 suggest that annual drug overdose deaths in the United States reached a record high of 93,000. Fortunately EMS strategies are being put in place to combat this nation-wide issue.

This report highlights how a six-state "payers cohort," through the ASTHO/CDC Heart Disease and Stroke Prevention Learning Collaborative, convened cross-sector teams which included payer partners, local health agency staff, academic institutions, community health workers, and other state‐ or local‐level stakeholders to support efforts to improve cardiovascular health outcomes, focusing on blood pressure control and reducing healthcare costs.

ASTHO’s guidebook, Leading Public Health Practice Through Health Informatics and Technology, provides additional information on achieving bidirectional data exchange and preparing for electronic case reporting adoption and implementation.

This report shares results and key takeaways from interviews on topics including the overall structure of Legionnaires’ disease programs, diagnosis and clinical testing protocols, and risk communication.

This report highlights key tools, resources, takeaways, and improvement strategies that health agencies can leverage to help navigate complex awards, increase efficiencies, and improve business processes.