October 2006 Update
Health Promotion Advocates
 

Health promotion legislation has been receiving much attention on Capitol Hill this year. Health Promotion FIRST (S.866) was introduced in 2005 with significant support from our advocates. The Workforce Health Improvement Program Act, the Healthy Workforce Act, and the Personal Health Investment Today bill (H.R. 245) have also received substantial attention from both advocacy groups and legislators. It is encouraging to see so much momentum building for health promotion within the U.S. Congress.

The good news is that legislators aren’t the only ones seriously considering health promotion. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) announced in August that it will be awarding funds to five existing health promotion/risk reduction programs to provide services to 85,000 Medicare-eligible senior citizens for a three-year period as part of the Senior Risk Reduction Demonstration Project. A number of Health Promotion Advocates board members were members of the panel that designed this study and instrumental in securing Congressional support to fund it. More information on the Project can be found at the following link:

http://www.cms.hhs.gov/apps/media/press/release.asp?Counter=1949

Medicare will also soon be covering Dean Ornish's Heart Disease Reversal Program and Herbert Benson's relaxation program. Dean Ornish, a Health Promotion Advocates advisory board member, spent almost a decade working to secure this coverage. Michael O’Donnell, chairman of the Health Promotion Advocates board of directors wrote an editorial for the American Journal of Health Promotion in which he estimates the potential impact of the landmark Senior Risk Reduction Demonstration Project. This can be found at the following link:

http://healthpromotionjournal.com/publications/journal/en2006-09.htm

These are exciting and encouraging times for health promotion. While it will take years to see our legislative goals pass and be enacted, Health Promotion Advocates has achieved remarkable success since its inception in 2000. The proliferation of proposed legislation and funding opportunities this year attest to the impact that we, along with other health promotion organizations, are having on the nation.