Other

This spring the Building Performance Institute, Inc. (BPI) and Green & Healthy Homes Initiative (GHHI) will introduce the Healthy Home Evaluator (HHE) credential to the nation's home performance, weatherization and healthy housing workforce, with the goal of breaking the link between unhealthy housing and unhealthy families through home performance interventions. 

The credential builds upon the BPI Building Analyst or Energy Auditor certifications to verify the competencies required to conduct in-depth healthy home environmental risk assessments. The Healthy Home Evaluator assesses home-based environmental health and safety hazards and provides a prioritized list of recommendations to address those hazards.

"From identifying asthma triggers and risk of lead poisoning to testing for CO and other health hazards, tremendous opportunity exists to incorporate healthy home measures into whole house home performance assessments," said Larry Zarker, CEO of BPI. "With their expertise in whole house building science, BPI Building Analysts and Energy Auditors are uniquely qualified to do this work."

"Momentum is building for a national credential that bridges the knowledge gap between energy efficient buildings and healthy housing," said Ruth Ann Norton, GHHI President & CEO. "GHHI works with BPI Building Analysts in 25 cities to conduct healthy home assessments and interventions. Combining BPI certified professionals' expertise with healthy homes training in the HHE credential provides the workforce with a high quality, portable credential that can be recognized everywhere."

GHHI leads the national effort to integrate healthy homes and weatherization into energy efficiency work. Supported by a grant from the JPB Foundation, GHHI is working with state, county and city governments to bring whole home assessments and interventions to 300,000 low and moderate income families, by coordinating existing state and local programs and funding streams.

There is growing evidence of demand for healthy home assessments in the marketplace, particularly in the area of asthma prevention, according to a 2014 nationwide survey by the National Center for Healthy Housing. Thirteen states reported that some Medicaid reimbursement was in place for home-based asthma education, while seven states reported that one or more private payers in the state provide or reimburse for home-based asthma education. States also reported on other financing mechanisms, including hospital community benefits, social impact bonds, and state-funded programs to provide services.

"With the growing demand for preventative healthy home interventions, building a home assessment workforce that combines strong building science expertise with healthy homes principles will lead to improvements in public health, and also enhance the credibility of efforts to secure sustainable financing for such interventions," said David Rowson, Director of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's Indoor Environments Division. "BPI's new credential is a welcome addition to the expansion and sustainability of proven healthy homes interventions."

Registration Now Open for HHE Pilot Exam

BPI will pilot the HHE certification exam beginning April 4th at the 2016 ACI National Home Performance Conference in Austin, Texas, or at any BPI Test Center nationwide. The 50-question written exam builds upon the knowledge, skills and abilities already demonstrated by the BPI Building Analyst or Energy Auditor certifications, which are prerequisites for the HHE exam. There is no HHE field practical exam. The results of the pilot test cycle will be used to set passing scores for the national exams. 

• Written exam only
• 50 questions
• BPI Building Analyst or Energy Auditor certification prerequisite
• Exam cost: $200.00
• Take pilot exam at any BPI Test Center or 2016 ACI National Conference in Austin, TX - April 4-7, 2016

To take the pilot exam at any BPI Test Center, find a Test Center near you.

To register for the pilot exam contact BPI at pilot@bpi.org. 

HHE Certification Background

Critical technical and financial support for the development of the HHE credential was provided by the Interstate Renewable Energy Council (IREC). To develop the new credential, a team of subject matter experts in public health, building science and healthy housing convened to create the certification blueprint and job task analysis. The blueprint defines the general requirements of the HHE credential: prerequisites, exam structure and recertification requirements. The job task analysis defines what tasks the HHE will be required to perform. The certification blueprint was produced in accordance with the ISO 17024 standard.

  About the Green & Healthy Homes Initiative

GHHI is a national nonprofit dedicated to breaking the link between unhealthy housing and unhealthy families. Formerly known as the Coalition to End Childhood Lead Poisoning, GHHI replaces stand-alone housing intervention programs with an integrated, whole-house approach that produces sustainable green, healthy and safe homes. This project later became the Green & Healthy Homes Initiative directed by the Coalition that addresses the health and energy efficiency needs of a home through a holistic intervention model.  

  About the Building Performance Institute

BPI is the nation's premier building performance credentialing, quality assurance and standards setting organization. BPI develops technical standards using an open, transparent, consensus-based process built on sound building science. BPI is approved by the American National Standards Institute, Inc. (ANSI) as an accredited developer of American National Standards and as a certifying body for personnel credentials.

For more information on GHHI, visit www.greenandhealthyhomes.org. 

For more information on BPI, visit www.bpi.org/pros.

- See more at: http://www.greenandhealthyhomes.org/media/press-releases/ghhi-bpi-introduce-healthy-home-evaluator-credential

Introduction

Health care reform activities since the 2010 passage of the Affordable Care Act have resulted in significant and innovative shifts in health service delivery and reimbursement – with an overall movement towards increased value, coordination, and accountability in care. Accompanying these changes, many of the traditional roles and services of providers such as physicians, nurses, and other health care workers have expanded and evolved. In addition, some emerging, new occupations are playing an increasing role in patient-centered medical homes (PCMHs) and other team-based models for health care delivery.1

Although community health workers (CHWs) have been embedded in community-based outreach programs for decades, significant national policy interest is emerging for this the occupation due to the potential ability of CHWs to improve health care access, service delivery, and care coordination, and to provide enhanced value in health care investments. 2 Although there is some variability in how the U.S. Department of Labor3 and other organizations4 define a “Community Health Worker,” a CHW is typically a frontline public health worker who is a trusted member of, and/or has an unusually close understanding of, the community served. This trusting relationship enables the worker to serve as a link between community members and needed health and social services within their community. CHWs hold a unique position within an often rigid health care system in that they can be flexible and creative in responding to specific individual and community needs. Their focus is often on the social, rather than the medical, determinants of health – addressing the socioeconomic, cultural practices, and organizational barriers affecting wellness and access to care.5 CHWs are known by numerous names in their communities and in the health literature, including Promotores de Salud, Community Health Advisors, and related titles, 6,7,8 reflecting their widely variable roles and responsibilities. This variability can present a challenge for demonstrating their value through outcomes research and for attempts to standardize CHW educational pathways, certification, and reimbursement.9,10

This report reviews select health services research findings on CHW utilization that are relevant to U.S. policymakers and considers the key challenges to fully realizing and quantifying the potential for CHWs to improve health care delivery. Although not intended to be a comprehensive and critical analysis of the full body of research around CHWs, this paper builds on information from a number of recent reports from across the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) – including a 2009 systematic review by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ),11 a 2014 evidence assessment published by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC),12 a 2015 CDC policy brief on CHW interventions for chronic disease management,13 and a 2015 summary of findings by the CDC-supported Community Preventive Services Task Force on cardiovascular disease interventions.14 This material is supplemented with select additions from the primary health literature and reports by health policy research organizations. 

Read the full brief here: https://aspe.hhs.gov/sites/default/files/pdf/168956/CHWPolicy.pdf

U.S. Senator Kirsten Gillibrand of New York has announced more than $1.6 billion in funding for school districts nationwide to help students manage their asthma. The funding is part of Gillibrand’s School Asthma Management Plan Act and was included in the national education bill recently signed into law by President Obama. The funding will go to school districts nationwide to help them develop policies over how to deal with student asthma attacks. It will also include money for training so that schools can help students prevent and respond to their own asthma attacks. "This is a real, real world benefit to children with asthma," said Michael Seilback of the American Lung Association. He said if students have help managing their own asthma, they can spend less time in the emergency room and more time in school. "Most children with asthma know there are certain triggers that cause their asthma to flare up and could lead to an asthma attack," Seilback said. "We can’t prevent those symptoms from starting, but, by actively working on their own condition, we try to avoid getting to the point where they’re being sent to an emergency room." According to the New York State Department of Health, more than 56,000 Long Island children suffer from asthma. Nearly 1,300 were hospitalized overnight for their asthma in 2014.