Milwaukee Healthcare Partnership outlines community health needs, coordination priorities ahead of budget season

Milwaukee Healthcare Partnership leaders told the County Board committee on Thursday they are using the partnership’s most recent Community Health Needs Assessment and an annual strategic snapshot to align the work of hospitals, federally qualified health centers, county and city public health agencies and community partners.

Anne Christensen, executive director of the Milwaukee Healthcare Partnership, and Shakira LaGrant McLean, executive director of the Milwaukee County Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS), described findings from the 2024 assessment that was released in 2025 and summarized the partnership’s priorities: coverage and access, care coordination and community health.

The needs assessment identified violence, mental health and substance use as the top interconnected community health issues; chronic disease and maternal and child health were also highlighted. Presenters noted persistent life‑expectancy gaps between neighborhoods, differences in emergency department use for preventable conditions, and demographic disparities in emergency visits for mental‑health and substance‑use needs.

Christensen described several partnership programs meant to reduce those gaps. They include the Milwaukee Enrollment Network (a coverage outreach effort run “backbone” style with Covering Wisconsin), a specialty‑care coordination program that connects uninsured patients to specialty appointments across health systems and safety‑net clinics, and an ED‑to‑FQHC referral model that helps people presenting to emergency departments establish care at federally qualified health centers. The partnership also supports a Housing‑is‑Health pathway that refers people experiencing homelessness into Milwaukee County’s coordinated entry system.

Christensen told the committee the partnership maintains a shared community investment pool of about $2,000,000 contributed by member health systems to seed initiatives; the partnership also is participating in a mental‑health improvement fund administered through United Way. The presentation described outreach approaches (surveys, key informant interviews, focus groups) and pointed committee members to the Health Compass Milwaukee data portal for ZIP‑level indicators.

County DHHS and partnership leaders discussed enrollment and coverage numbers at a high level: the countywide uninsured rate was reported in the presentation at about 7.3 percent; the presenter cited recent Marketplace enrollment for the county at roughly 51,000 people. The presenter said Medicaid and Marketplace numbers are being tracked closely as state and federal policy changes may affect coverage in the coming months.

Supervisors asked about funding for partnership work, how the health systems coordinate charity care and whether community voice is being included beyond the three‑year assessment cycle. Christensen said the partnership’s operating funds come primarily from member dues and the shared community investment fund; federal grants were not part of the current operating budget, she said. She told supervisors the partnership intentionally used multiple methods to collect community input and said the partner organizations — hospitals, FQHCs and community groups — hold the primary mechanisms for ongoing resident engagement.

Supervisors also raised public‑health concerns including infectious‑disease readiness, oral health for children, and behavioral‑health capacity. Christensen said there were no known measles cases in Wisconsin at the time of the presentation and that the partnership and county were planning for outbreak response. On behavioral health, presenters described convening inpatient and emergency‑department providers in an attempt to improve referral pathways and reduce bottlenecks; they cited examples where protocols developed with Children’s Wisconsin and the Mental Health Emergency Center have clarified ED workflows for youth.

The item was presented as informational; the committee did not take formal action. Committee members suggested continued coordination and asked staff to return with any follow‑ups as the partnership and county evaluate impacts and track enrollment and service metrics going into budget season.