Health Enhancement Community Initiative Public Comment Period

Improving the health and well-being of all residents in Connecticut and reducing the rising trends of Connecticut’s health care costs depends on improving community health and health equity and preventing people who live, work, learn, and worship in communities from experiencing poor health.

The proposed Health Enhancement Community (HEC) Initiative is presented here in a draft HEC Framework and described in more detail in the accompanying draft HEC Technical Report. This initiative is aimed at supporting the health and well-being of Connecticut residents in all communities across the state by improving community health and health equity and preventing poor health. This can be achieved through establishing Health Enhancement Communities (HECs) to operate throughout the entire state. The HECs would work collaboratively to improve the social, economic, and physical conditions within communities that enable individuals and families to meet their basic needs, achieve their health and well-being goals, and thrive throughout their lives.

This solicitation for public comment is issued to further the already extensive community and stakeholder engagement process that led to the release of this draft report. Please use the following directions to ensure that your comments reach us and can be incorporated in the planning process.

Step 1: Get familiar with the HEC documentation:

To comment on the SIM Health Enhancement Community model, you must first know which section you want to comment on. There are a variety of ways to learn about this proposed model. Two documents that lay out the proposed framework for Health Enhancement Communities are included in this announcement:

• Proposed HEC Framework– This is a shorter description of the proposed HEC Framework. HEC Framework

• Proposed HEC Technical Report– This is a longer, more detailed description of the HEC framework. It is intended to serve as a reference document for those who want specifics about the HEC framework. HEC Technical Report

Public interest organizations named in the annexed documents may aid to inform citizens about the proposed design and channel residents’ concerns through their own commentary to the reports.

The most complete way of finding information about the HEC model is by searching the State Innovation Model website including the resources page of the Population Health Council.

Step 2: Submit Your Comments

After searching the report’s table of contents and finding the areas you are interested in commenting on, you may submit your comments by first providing your first and last name, city, and state. It will be important to state whether your comments are made as a private individual or on behalf of a group of interested consumers/residents. Naming or describing the constituency that is represented in the comments will be helpful to reviewers. Public comments can be emailed to OHS@ct.gov and will be accepted until February 13, 2019. Public comments that were submitted will be posted on the OHS website.

The SIM program will issue a final summary responding to comments submitted for review by the Population Health Council and the SIM Steering Committee. Once approved by the governing bodies, the summary will be made public on the SIM website.