NYHealth’s 2018 Progress Report

Progress

• Organized an activist campaign to ensure Veterans Treatment Courts are available to all veterans in New York State.
• Spearheaded efforts to ensure that low-income residents in New York State and across the nation have continued access to Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits at farmers markets.
• Responded to a range of requests for public comments on issues relating to health care coverage, price transparency, the federal “public charge” proposed rule, and the Medicaid Diabetes Prevention Program.
• Participated in coalitions geared toward promoting activist agendas by the philanthropic community.

Progress

• Established new public/private partnerships to extend and deepen our place-based investments, including with the Syracuse Housing Authority, Niagara Falls Community Development, and the NYC Mayor’s Office of Criminal Justice.
• Identified and began working with a new Community Convener, University Settlement Society of New York, on the Lower East Side.
• Continued work by our grantees to amplify community cohesion activities that engaged residents and showcased improvements being made in the neighborhood.
• Documented current progress and disseminated lessons learned through our interim assessment report.
• Expanded the formal evaluation of this initiative to include assessing community cohesion, organizational capacity, public safety, and sustainability.

Progress

• Improved activation of approximately 50 parks and public spaces in the first three years, with 15 spaces in 2018 alone, including renovating and activating underused spaces.
• Adjusted our grantmaking to address public safety, including a resident safety initiative to support enhanced use of public spaces.

Progress

• Created 25 new access points to healthier food across all neighborhoods in the first three years. In 2018, 53 new access points were created through a range of efforts by NYHealth and others, including through Clinton County’s Better Choice Retailer Program, food stores stocking a healthier selection of foods, and new farmers markets, youth markets, and urban farms.
• Supported expansion of innovative nutrition incentive programs, educated food producers and consumers, and advanced nutrition education and healthy food procurement in schools and other institutions to increase demand for healthier food across New York State.

Progress

• Invested in new transparency tools and resources to better arm New Yorkers with health care information:
  • Launched the ExpectNY website, where expectant parents can look up various quality metrics by hospital.
  • Released the NYPlanCosts Calculator, where consumers can compare out-of-pocket costs for various chronic conditions by health plan.
  • Developed the Healthcare Transparency website, a first-of-its- kind searchable comprehensive database of 230 public transparency tools.
  • Supported the “Difficult Decisions” report series, which identifies promising approaches so that patients and caregivers can better assess post-acute care setting options.
• Developed the “Connecting Consumers to Information” initiative, with support to two statewide primary care provider associations (NYSAFP and NYACP) and technical assistance to engage clinical and nonclinical staff at medical practices to connect patients to available health care transparency tools and resources.
• Supported implementation of OpenNotes at 10 hospital systems to make doctors’ clinic notes accessible and actionable for patients.
• Invested in a statewide quality transparency survey that will gather New Yorkers’ perspectives on the type of health care quality measures that matter to them.

Progress

• Published the first-of-its-kind study on the prevalence and role of Patient and Family Advisory Councils (PFACs) at hospitals in New York State.
• Supported a more nimble, adaptable, and deployable model for PFACs across New York State to ensure a wider array of patient voice representation.
• Supported a cohort of 12 hospitals across New York State with intensive technical assistance to enhance their patient and family engagement and person-centered care practices.
• Began collecting ideas directly from patients that can then be used to inform practice improvements and care delivery innovations.

Progress

• Sought changes in New York’s Certificate of Need process so consumers can inform decisions that affect access to care. Recommendations have gained traction with policymakers.
• Began training New Yorkers, especially in marginalized communities, to participate in community actions, advocate for policy change on critical health issues, and communicate their stories, needs, and policy priorities.
• Began building patients’ capacity  to drive change and leveraging a digital organizing strategy to enlist New Yorkers in sharing their experiences, all with the goal of amplifying patient voices to shape and achieve policy objectives.

Progress

• Organized and/or participated in numerous events related to veterans’ issues, including:
  • New York State’s first comprehensive veterans’ health conference focused on the emerging needs of minority and justice-involved veterans.
  • Public “Conversation With” events with key veterans advocates, discussing gender disparities in the military and the impact on health, the health needs of the military community, and challenges faced by the broader military community.
  • Roundtable discussions with New York City’s Department of Veterans’ Services on holistic care and with the Bronx VA on a potential public-private partnership to increase veterans’ access to mental health providers.
• Participated in 13 events sponsored by other funders, as well as local and national veterans advocacy organizations, including:
  • Grantmakers in Health
  • The Council on Foundations
  • The Veterans Mental Health Coalition
  • The National Organization of Veteran-Serving Organizations.

Progress

• Improved access to mental health care for post-9/11 veterans by expanding the Headstrong Project provider network to rural and suburban areas across New York State.
• Funded a study to investigate community-based providers’ readiness to provide culturally competent care to returning veterans in non-VA settings. The study found that only 2% of private providers in New York State fully meet the readiness criteria.
• Invested in improving the quality of care for returning veterans across New York State, including student veterans on SUNY campuses, incarcerated veterans held on Rikers Island, and veterans who seek care in private settings throughout New York City.

Progress

284 letters of inquiry received:

• Nearly half of Special Projects Fund grants awarded in 2018 were to new grantees not previously funded by NYHealth.

Progress

• In 2018, Special Projects Fund grants addressed a wide range of topics, including gun violence and lead contamination in New York City’s water fountains and soil.
• Supported an analysis of a single-payer health care system for New York State. The analysis estimated the potential economic impact for New York residents, the State government, and employers. It garnered substantial attention, was cited in the debate between Democratic primary candidates in the New York Gubernatorial race, and has sparked conversations about options to achieve universal health insurance coverage in the State.
• Addressed the opioid epidemic by funding a pilot training toolkit for OB/GYNs on best practices for treating pregnant women and infants who are addicted to opioids.

Progress

• Produced analyses on pressing issues in New York State, including:
  • A data brief on the six neighborhoods in our Building Healthy Communities program and the need for local approaches to improve health.
  • A report on the association between doctors’ financial relationships with opioid manufacturers and opioid prescribing in New York State.
  • A fact sheet on potentially toxic chemicals in personal care products.
  • A data analysis noting various reasons for life expectancy decreases in New York State.
  • An issue brief assessing a New York State initiative to increase locally-grown and produced food in schools.

• Published peer-reviewed journal publications on ensuring appropriate levels of reimbursement for the Medicare Diabetes Prevention Program and a national analysis of the potential conflicts of interest from physician relationships with opioid manufacturers.
• Published a blog post on lessons learned from our approach to developing a public-facing progress report.

Progress

Publishing 

• Published 27 reports and 19 commentaries, in addition to 18 grant outcome reports.
• Published 8 op-eds and letters to the editor.

Traditional Media

• Received 179 media hits.

E-mail/Social Media

• Maintained more than 12k contacts on our e-mail lists.
  • Averaged 25% open rate for e-mail blasts (industry standard is 20%).
• More than 6k Twitter followers.

Convening

• Held 38 convenings; highlights include:
  • Large external conferences in each of the Foundation’s focused priority areas: Consumer Empowerment, Building Healthy Communities, and Veterans’ Health.
  • Engaged hundreds of participants through webinar briefings on the NYHealth-funded analysis of a single-payer health care system in New York State.

Website

• Continued to refine the website to support publications that are less text-heavy, more digestible, and more shareable and interactive.
• Began experimenting with dynamic infographics on website and social media to increase engagement.

Progress

• As of December 31, 2018, the 3-year compound annual return on endowment investments was 5.5%, net of fees. This reflects the sharp decline in stocks during the fourth quarter of 2018, which produced a 6.3% loss for the year.
• Investment performance relative to peers for the 3-year period ending September 30, 2018 ranked in the 89th percentile.¹
• Maintained return of 5.6% since inception (July 2006).
• When compared with the benchmark of 5% plus CPI (Consumer Price Index) since inception, NYHealth was 1.1% below the benchmark.

¹ Peer data is based on a survey conducted by Cambridge Associates; “peers” are defined as foundations with less than $500 million in assets. There are currently more than 52 foundations contributing such data.

Progress

• For 2017, NYHealth was certified with another clean audit.
• The average rating by grantees of NYHealth staff members’ responsiveness was 6.4 (out of a 7-point scale), putting NYHealth in the 61st percentile relative to peer foundations.²
• In 2018, all grantees received their initial payment within an average of 10 days of receiving an award notice.

²  Based on the 2017 Center for Effective Philanthropy Grantee Perception Survey.