Preparing the Safety Net: A Briefing with Secretary Valerie A. Arkoosh, MD, MPH on Medicaid Changes and Regional Readiness

This timely virtual briefing will feature Secretary Valerie A. Arkoosh, MD, MPH, in conversation with Bucks and Montgomery County (Health and) Human Service leaders to explore Medicaid changes, timely health policy updates, and what these shifts will likely mean for residents, families, providers, and the regional health and human services safety net in 2027. Join us!

Thursday, November 12
12:00-1:00pm
Zoom

Can’t make it live? Register to receive the recording in the follow-up materials and access the content on your own schedule.

Who Is This For?

All Nonprofit Professionals

Featuring

Valerie A. Arkoosh, MD, MPH
Secretary of Human Services
Pennsylvania Department of Human Services

Valerie A. Arkoosh, MD, MPH, was appointed to lead the Pennsylvania Department of Human Services by Governor Josh Shapiro on January 17, 2023. As Secretary of Human Services, Secretary Arkoosh has focused on embedding a whole-person, proactive, and preventive approach to service and care delivery, building supports and interventions that help Pennsylvanians achieve greater stability and better health. Under her leadership, PA DHS has expanded Medicaid coverage for evidence-based programs like doula care and street medicine, launched PA Navigate to connect health care providers and social services/non-profit systems to those needing services in their communities, and invested in access to care by working to eliminate the adult emergency waiting list for Pennsylvanians with intellectual disabilities and autism. Under Secretary Arkoosh, PA DHS also released Healthy Moms, Vibrant Futures, the Shapiro Administration’s maternal health strategic action plan and was awarded $193M for the first year of its Rural Health Transformation Plan.

Prior to state service, Secretary Arkoosh served on the Montgomery County Board of Commissioners for eight years, serving as Commission Chair from November 2016 through January 2023. Arkoosh is a graduate of the University of Nebraska College of Medicine and, upon obtaining a Master of Public Health from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health in 2007, Arkoosh became deeply engaged in the national effort to achieve comprehensive health care reform. She led the National Physicians Alliance, a national non-profit organization of physicians, who, putting their patients before profits, joined a broad-based nation-wide coalition for reform. During this time, she developed policy and legislative strategy, and promoted public engagement in Washington, D.C., Pennsylvania, and throughout the country. Dr. Arkoosh maintains comprehensive knowledge of the implementation of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act and its impact on individuals and the health care system.

Patricia McKernan
Director of Health and Human Services
Department of Health and Human Services, Montgomery County

Rachael Neff
Director of Human Services
Bucks County