Georgia Health Policy Center¹
at the Andrew Young School of Policy Studies

The Health Policy Center’s fundamental mission is to improve health status by developing recommendations and implementation strategies to improve health care quality, access, and cost. Through research, policy development, and program design and evaluation, Center staff, University faculty, and representatives of collaborating organizations assist in the formulation of health care policy at the state and national levels. Through its Child Policy Initiative, the Center has expanded its focus to address children's policy issues beyond health care. Also, as part of the reorganization of the AYSPS, some of the evaluation work of the Applied Research Center transitioned to the Health Policy Center. The 2002 projects of the Health Policy Center included the following subject areas: children’s health and well-being, long-term care, rural and community health system development, public and private insurance coverage, and policy development, evaluation, and program implementation efforts with the Department of Community Health, Division of Medical Assistance. Several other initiatives, including the Applied Research Center’s evaluation projects related to fire and fall prevention, school health leadership, diabetes, and public health worker training are listed below under a general project category. Karen Minyard is the Director of the Health Policy Center.

In This Page

• Projects
• Publications
• Visitors 

Projects

Child Well-Being. Monica Herk. The Child Policy Initiative aims to improve child policy in Georgia through applied research and analysis. The Initiative's current efforts relate to child poverty, children's health policy, childcare and early learning, and child protective services. The Initiative provides analysis of existing policies and future options, research into best practices, and objective facilitation and support for state agencies involved in children's policy.

Long-Term Care Partnership. James P. Cooney, Jr. and Glenn M. Landers. The Center continued its relationship with the Center for Health Services Research at the Robinson College of Business in its Long-Term Care Partnership study. Under the direction of Principle Investigator James P. Cooney Jr., Center staff assisted with the analysis of Medicare and Medicaid claims data to assist the state of Georgia in evaluating the cost and care outcomes of institutional versus home and community-based services. Long-term care costs account for the largest percentage of annual Medicaid expenditures in Georgia, and program administrators are using the information products from the study to help determine how best to allocate state resources for the growing population in need of long-term care services. (2 years, $1,057,222)

Networks for Rural Health. Tina Anderson Smith. Networks for Rural Health is a state level program designed to: (1) assure rural residents of Georgia access to primary health care services in the communities in which they live; and (2) help rural health systems fully participate in networks and thrive as health care delivery becomes increasingly competitive. The Health Policy Center has assembled a team of rural health experts who provide tailored technical assistance, facilitation, mediation, and consultation to participating communities. Collectively, the team has experience in community development, clinical medicine, behavioral health, hospital financing, strategic planning, economics, managed care, and organizational development. The program deliverables include working with 19 networks; developing financial, clinical, and governance leaders; profiling rural community health systems; providing education from program learnings; and participating in state level rural health system policy making. (2 years, $750,000)

Uninsured Georgians

Health Care Central Georgia. Tina Anderson Smith. Health Care Central Georgia, a partnership of seven counties in central Georgia, contracted with the Georgia Health Policy Center to perform an evaluation of the program to date. The Georgia Health Policy Center will also facilitate the provision of legal and actuarial technical assistance. ($80,000)

HRSA State Planning Grant Data Collection and Analysis. Karen Minyard. The Center is currently managing data collection and analysis for the “HRSA State Planning Grant,” under contract with the Governor’s Office of the Consumers’ Insurance Advocate, by and on behalf of U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Health Resources Services Administration. This project will, for the first time, allow researchers to estimate with greater accuracy the burden of the uninsured across the state. The Center is also participating in the Governor’s Action Group on the Uninsured, which will evaluate information produced by the Data Collection Team and identify options for managing the state’s uninsured population. ($374,492)

Projects Under a Multi-year Contract with the Georgia Department of Community Health's Division of Medical Assistance Related to Policy Development, Evaluation and Program Implementation 

Evaluating Georgia's Children's Health Insurance Program (CHIP). Monica Herk and Katherine Gardner. The Child Policy Initiative and Health Policy Center are analyzing data from Georgia's health insurance program to serve low-income children, PeachCare for Kids. The analyses assess the program's effectiveness in achieving several goals: improved access to insurance, improved access to primary care, access to high-quality health services, and better health outcomes. The effort includes original data collection through surveys of new enrollees and applicants and evaluation of health insurance claims data. Results support policy and program development at DMA, and also are reported to the federal Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services, to be combined with results of other state CHIP programs. ($173,212)

Evaluating Georgia Indigent Care Trust Fund Primary Care. Glenn M. Landers. The Health Policy Center continues a three-year evaluation of participating hospitals’ plans for, and uses of, the primary care portion of Indigent Care Trust Fund (ICTF) dollars. Georgia’s ICTF represents the largest component of disproportionate share hospital payments distributed through Georgia Medicaid. Georgia is the only state that requires hospitals to allocate fifteen percent of its ICTF dollars to primary care services. Eighty-nine hospitals participated in the program in 2002, accounting for $65,064,486 in primary care expenditures. The goal of this evaluation is to determine hospitals’ compliance with policies and primary care plans, the degree to which ICTF dollars are having an impact on the health status of local communities, and whether or not eligible recipients are receiving services. (3 years, $242,900)

Improving Outreach and Utilization in PeachCare for Kids and Medicaid. Mary Ann Phillips. In the first year of this two-year contract, Health Policy Center staff coordinated activities related to enhancing the utilization of primary care services for children enrolled in PeachCare for Kids and Medicaid. These activities included the development, distribution, and review of proposals for health providers and community-based organizations to improve utilization of health services by children enrolled in these public insurance programs. During the next year, these minigrants will be awarded and monitored. Outreach materials were also developed in both English and Spanish to explain some of the Department’s programs. (2 years, $1,500,000)

General Projects

Access Georgia Rural Health Matching Grants Initiative. Tina Anderson Smith. The Rural Health Matching Grants Initiative is a two-year initiative of the Philanthropic Collaborative for a Healthy Georgia and the Georgia Department of Community Health. This rural health initiative focuses on making grants to improve access and health status and reducing health disparities for underserved populations in rural areas. The Georgia Health Policy Center manages these grants and provides tailored technical assistance to the nine grant recipients ranging from leadership to strategic planning to mediation to the development of quality assurance mechanisms. (2 years, $2,000,000)

ACET Collaborative Team [ACT] Evaluation Project. Laura Henderson and Monica Herk. The ACT evaluation project is a multi-year process and outcome evaluation of a child care training and technical assistance project by the state of Georgia. The evaluation includes observations of classroom quality and focus groups and interviews with early childhood teachers statewide. (Year 1, $472,000; Year 2, $504,164.)

Bridge Evaluation Planning Project. Monica Herk and English Norman. This project developed a program map and an evaluation plan for the Bridge, an intermediate residential treatment program for adolescents. ($20,000)

Evaluation of Fire and Fall Prevention. Judith Ottoson. This project evaluates the progress of Remembering When: A Fire and Fall Prevention Program for Older Adults. The program was developed jointly by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the National Fire Protection Association. Initiated two years ago, the CDC seeks to understand the implementation process and program effects before a decision is made about a national roll out of the program. Control and experimental sites for the evaluation are in Virginia where the project is working cooperatively with the local Area Agencies on Aging. (1 year, $271,045)

Evaluation of the Management Academy for Public Health. Judith Ottoson. This project serves to coordinate the internal and external evaluation of the Management Academy for Public Health at the University of North Carolina for the National Foundation for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The program involves the training of frontline public health workers in management skills. It has potential as a prototype for national training of public health workers. (2000-2003, $24,965)

Evaluation of the National School Health Coordinator Leadership Institute. Judith Ottoson. The American Cancer Society developed the Institute in 1999 to facilitate school health coordination as part of a broad prevention strategy. The evaluation of the Institute outcomes has been a focus of this project which involves on-site and followed surveys of participants over the three years of Institute implementation. In addition to continuing to track and report the progress of Institute graduates, the Health Policy Center worked with the ACS to gather information from participants of Institute replication efforts conducted across the country. Evaluation team members also conducted interviews and examined selected School Health Coordinator portfolios to identify instances where the Institute may have acted as a catalyst for other efforts. (3 years, $203,871)

Georgia Early Learning Initiative [GELI] Year 1 Process Evaluation. Monica Herk and Jennifer Antinozzi. The GELI Year 1 process evaluation examined GELI’s effectiveness in getting its services up and running during its initial year. ($44,000)

Governor’s Action Group on Safe Children. Monica Herk, Jennifer Antinozzi and English Norman. The Child Policy Initiative assisted the Governor’s Office of Planning and Budget in staffing this Governor-appointed commission. The Action Group’s final report, which came out in December 2002, made recommendations to the Governor on how to improve out-of-home placements for children in state custody. ($82,433)

Grant from the Agency for Health Care Quality and Research (AHQR) and the Packard Foundation. David Rein. The Health Policy Center, in collaboration with faculty from Emory University and the University of Alabama at Birmingham, was awarded a multi-year grant to study children's health insurance. The three-year study, which was completed in 2002, examined the effect on access to care of the federal Children's Health Insurance Program (CHIP) and changes and expansions in Medicaid in Alabama and Georgia. The study focused on provider availability and low-income children's subsequent access to, utilization of, and satisfaction with health services. ($38,755)

Grant from the United Parcel Service Foundation. Monica Herk. The Child Policy Initiative received a follow-up grant from the United Parcel Service Foundation to support its work on children’s policy. The program contributes to scientific knowledge about children and to the policies that guide children's programs in Georgia. ($62,500)

Health Needs of Foster Children. Monica Herk and Katherine Gardner. This project will analyze Medicaid and PeachCare claims data to determine gaps and duplications in Georgia’s provision of health care services to foster children. ($20,000 to be awarded December 13, 2002)

National Diabetes Program-Evaluation. Judith Ottoson and Mark Rivera. This project will develop case studies of five Diabetes Control Centers selected by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) as models of excellence. Using the “model of influence” developed by the Division of Diabetes Translation at the CDC, factors influencing the success of the center will be identified and used subsequently to develop criteria for a national survey of Centers in all fifty states. (1 year, $147,316)

Northland Healthcare Alliance. Tina Anderson Smith. The Northland Healthcare Alliance contracted with the Georgia Health Policy Center to facilitate community level discussion related to the provision and coordination of health care services in sixteen individual rural communities in North Dakota. The Georgia Health Policy Center provided Community Health Systems Development training to hospital administrators, community resource coordinators, and representatives from the Alliance’s community partners. ($35,000)

Oral Health Prevention Program Evaluation. Monica Herk and Kathleen Lysak. This project provided a process evaluation to the state of Georgia’s Oral Health Prevention Program. ($10,000)

Philanthropic Collaborative for a Healthy Georgia. Mary Ann Phillips. Representatives of the Georgia philanthropic and corporate foundation communities have joined forces to enhance the ability of foundations to identify, fund, and evaluate health grant-making opportunities throughout the state. The effort has become known as the Philanthropic Collaborative for a Healthy Georgia. The Health Policy Center serves as the administrative and technical home for the Collaborative. As a means of building a public/private partnership between the Georgia Department of Community Health and the foundations, the Department provided state money to be used as a match for foundations and communities in responding to mutually agreed upon priority health care needs. The Health Policy Center, in its role as coordinator of the activities of the Philanthropic Collaborative, serves as the liaison between the foundations and the Department of Community Health. During 2002, Center staff monitored and provided technical assistance to two separate matching grants programs that addressed school health ($975,000) and access to rural health care ($2,000,000). At the request of the Collaborative, staff also developed a framework for assessing community-based cancer prevention and control efforts for Georgia.

Robert Wood Johnson Project. Monica Herk and Katherine Gardner. This project funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation examined the determinants of effective outreach for children’s health insurance programs through survey research and analysis. ($63,000)

Rural Health Network Technical Assistance Program. Tina Anderson Smith. The Rural Health Network Technical Assistance Program is a national level program launched by the Health Resources and Services Administration’s Office of Rural Health Policy. Through a contract with the Georgia Health Policy Center, direct support is provided to current Rural Health Network Development and Delta State Rural Development Network Grant program grantees. The goal of the program is to improve access to health care for people living in rural areas by supporting grantees in carrying out their grant-funded projects and optimizing the Office of Rural Health Policy’s rural network development programs. The Georgia Health Policy Center will identify the nature of the technical assistance required by grantees, ensure the delivery of appropriate technical assistance, and evaluate the effectiveness of the assistance. (1.5 years, $969,000)

Publications

Articles, briefs, newsletters and reports prepared by the Georgia Health Policy Center.

ACET Collaborative Team (ACT) Project Mid-Year Progress Report, Laura W. Henderson. July 2002.

ACET Collaborative Team (ACT) Project: Final Evaluation Report, The Child Policy Initiative. Laura W. Henderson, Craig T. Gordon, Jennifer L. Antinozzi, Monica Herk, and Dana Rickman. October 2002.

An Update on the Progress of School Health Coordinators. Judith M. Ottoson, Gregory Streib, John Clayton Thomas, and Mark Rivera (with Alkan). Evaluation Report for the National School Health Coordinator Leadership Institute, funded by the American Cancer Society. 2002.

A Report of Healthcare Delivery in Orange County, Florida, The Georgia Health Policy Center, Andrew Young School of Policy Studies, Georgia State University, Atlanta, GA, 2002.

Assessment of the Stage II, Georgia Information Network for Public Health Officials. Ottoson, J.M. & Fehrenbach, S.N. Prepared for the National Foundation for the Centers for Disease Control, Atlanta, Ga., 2002.

Community Stories series reflecting several Access Georgia grantees programs, goals and accomplishments.

• "Appalachian Community Story," Tina Anderson Smith, Neal Stockmyer, Susan Toal, and Mary Vachon.
• “Be HIP Community Story,” Tina Anderson Smith, Claudia Lacson, Susan Toal, and Mary Vachon.
• “Coastal Medical Access Program Community Story,” Tina Anderson Smith, Catherine Liemohn, Susan Toal and Mary Vachon.
• “East Georgia Health Cooperative: A Symphony of Services,” Tina Anderson Smith, Neal Stockmyer, Susan Toal, and Mary Vachon.
• “Focus on Men’s Health Community Story,” Tina Anderson Smith, Neal Stockmyer, Susan Toal, and Mary Vachon.
• “Greene - Morgan - Putnam Health Network: United in the Race for Health," Tina Anderson Smith, Catherine Liemohn, Susan Toal and Mary Vachon.
• "Habersham County Medical Center: Still Going Strong," Tina Anderson Smith.
• "Health Care Central Georgia: Pioneers for the Uninsured,” Tina Anderson Smith, Claudia Lacson, Susan Toal, and Mary Vachon.
• "Jefferson County Access Program: Further Down the Road," Tina Anderson Smith.
• “North West Georgia Healthcare Partnership Community Story,” Tina Anderson Smith, Claudia Lacson, Susan Toal, and Mary Vachon.
• “Tanner Community Story,” Tina Anderson Smith, Catherine Liemohn, Susan Toal and Mary Vachon.

Evaluation Report: National School Health Coordinator Leadership Institute. Judith M. Ottoson, Gregory Streib, John Clayton Thomas, Mark Rivera and Esra Alkan. Prepared for the American Cancer Society. 2002.

"Hospital Executive Leadership: A Critical Component for Improving Care at the End of Life, Glenn M. Landers, James P. Cooney, Jr. and Julianna M. Williams, Hospital Topics, Summer, 2002.

"Improving End-Of-Life Care in Nursing Facilities," Glenn M. Landers, Journal of the American Medical Directors' Association, March/April 2002.

Improving Early Childhood Education in Georgia: Progress Report on Year 1 of the Georgia Early Learning Initiative, Jennifer Antinozzi and Monica Herk, Child Policy Initiative Working Paper, March 8, 2002.

"Issue Brief: Developing Information Technology Infrastructure to Support Community Access Programs for the Uninsured," Tina Anderson Smith, Justin Samson and Eric Martin, forthcoming.

Update, a newsletter prepared for the Philanthropic Collaborative for a Healthy Georgia, Winter 2002.

Visitors

In response to the State of Georgia's significant support of cancer research through the Georgia Cancer Coalition, and the Coalition's request to the Andrew Young School to consider how it might support the Coalition's policy development needs, the Health Policy Center hosted four eminent cancer scholars in the Spring of 2002. Each scholar spent a day presenting his or her work to faculty and staff, meeting with staff from the Georgia Cancer Coalition, and exploring potential program development in the establishment of a cancer policy focus at the Andrew Young School. 

1. For a complete listing of AYSPS Active Research Sponsored Grants from CY2002, see the Appendix: Report on External Funding.