Public health officials would run a community-led environmental health pilot

The public health commissioner would establish a Triple Bottom Line Justice demonstration pilot and contract with a community-led redevelopment organization to run it. The pilot would operate in a city with more than 148,000 residents, using the latest decennial U.S. census. The public health commissioner would consult the energy and environmental protection commissioner. The pilot would focus on community-led cleanup and reuse of polluted properties and on using health-code information about social, economic, and environmental conditions. Its stated goals would include developing lessons for other communities, supporting possible health care resources, and studying environmental, health, economic, and state cost effects. The law would take effect October 1, 2026, and the pilot would have to be established by January 1, 2027.

The public health commissioner would identify relevant health codes, create a plan to increase their use, report on that plan, and provide education about the codes. The requirements would involve health care providers, hospitals, patients, communities, insurers’ reimbursement claims, and the environmental and public health agencies. The plan would aim to raise use of the selected codes to at least 20 percent of all health insurance claims submitted for reimbursement. The public health commissioner would consult the energy and environmental protection commissioner, and for the education program also consult the organization running the pilot. Reports would include code-use rates, related climate and environmental health trends, and recommendations. The first plan report would be due by January 1, 2027, with annual reports through January 1, 2030; the code-use plan would be due by January 1, 2030.

The public health commissioner would issue a final report on the pilot’s findings and recommendations. The report would go to the legislative committees responsible for public health, the environment, and insurance. The report would have to follow the state’s standard legislative reporting rules. The pilot would continue until the final report is issued or until the specified end date, whichever occurs later. The final report would be due by January 1, 2028, and the pilot would end on the report date or January 1, 2028, whichever is later.