As the Title V administrative agency, BFH works across many state agencies and has strong partnerships with key players in the healthcare delivery system across Louisiana. Over the past several years, strategic investments in policy roles and infrastructure to support patient safety and quality improvement initiatives at the facility and provider levels have deepened Title V’s work to improve systems of care for all women, children, and families in the state. Additionally, BFH collaborates with the various offices and bureaus across the Louisiana Department of Health (LDH) to carry out the public health assessment, policy, and assurance functions in the state’s healthcare delivery and financing system.

Within LDH, Title V’s work has centered around strengthening the partnership with Medicaid and other LDH sections. Consultation with nationally recognized Medicaid and early childhood policy experts to identify potential payment and incentive changes, structured learning collaboratives around mental health and reproductive health, and ongoing interagency workgroups have resulted in a shared targeted policy and system change efforts. For maternal health, the collective national focus on preventable deaths, harm and inequities has been another catalyst for shared action, elevating Louisiana’ s Title V data, policy, and care improvement initiatives.  

Outside of LDH, Title V works with many of the core elements of the state’s healthcare delivery system in the course of carrying out public health functions and focused system improvement campaigns. System partners include all birthing facilities, pediatric hospitals, clinical providers, training programs, licensing boards, professional associations, payors, health system policy advocates and interest groups, and, increasingly, patient and community advocates working to achieve fundamental system change. 

Overall, Title V employs BFH’s foundational strategies to connect data to action to system change, at various levels of the healthcare delivery system.