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Georgia Health Policy Center1
at the Andrew Young School of Policy Studies
The Georgia Health Policy Center, established in 1995, provides evidence-based research, program development and policy guidance on local, state and national levels to improve health status at the community level. The center distills its qualitative and quantitative research findings to connect decision makers with the objective research and guidance needed to make informed decisions about health policy and programming. Projects focus on some of the most complex policy issues facing health care today, including public and private health insurance coverage, long-term care, children's health and community health system development.
In This Section:
Georgia Health Policy Center works to fulfill its mission by gathering, analyzing and disseminating information in a manner that fosters collaboration, innovation and integrity and builds trust and relationships with both public and private local, state and national agencies interested in improving health status at the community level.
Public Health. Karen Minyard, Tina Anderson Smith, Chris Parker. Georgia Health Policy Center is performing an assessment of Georgia’s public health system. The purpose is to more clearly define public health’s “core business” especially as it relates to the broader system of health and health care in the state; gain an accurate understanding of the public’s perception of the role of public health; examine the areas of existing service overlap; and investigate opportunities for increased collaboration with various health care providers and stakeholders. It is anticipated that with this information and a review of best practices throughout the land, the state will be better prepared to maximize the resources available to meet the public’s health needs and achieve the goal of healthy Georgians living in healthy communities. ($198,000)
Southern Rural Healthcare Consortium. Karen Minyard, Tina Anderson Smith, Chris Parker, Lindsey Lonergan. Georgia Health Policy Center is working to improve health care in eight of the most rural, medically under served states in the country. The Southern Health Improvement Consortium tapped the center to develop a strategic plan to increase access to basic health care through the Southern Rural Access Program. The Southern Rural Access Program supports work to increase the supply of primary care providers in under served areas, strengthen the health care infrastructure and build capacity at the state and community level to address health care problems. Georgia Health Policy Center will conduct research and provide strategic planning for eight Southern states: Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, South Carolina, East Texas and West Virginia. ($92,000)
Venture Philanthropy and Grant Making
Georgia Health Policy Center partners with public and private grant makers to leverage federal, state, local, and philanthropic resources, empowers local communities and addresses priority health care problems to improve health status.
Philanthropic Collaborative for a Healthy Georgia. Mary Ann Phillips. Representatives of the Georgia philanthropic and corporate foundation communities joined forces in 1999 as the Philanthropic Collaborative for a Healthy Georgia to enhance the ability of foundations to identify, fund, and evaluate health grant-making opportunities throughout the state. Georgia 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. Georgia 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 and the Division of Public Health. During 2004, Center staff monitored and provided technical assistance to 13 communities receiving funds through the school health matching grants program and coordinated the childhood obesity initiative with a goal of informing, engaging, and energizing Georgia’s foundations to work towards reducing the incidence of childhood obesity in Georgia. ($25,000)
Healthcare Georgia Foundation. Mary Ann Phillips, Bernette McColley. Georgia Health Policy Center was awarded a grant from the Healthcare Georgia Foundation to enhance Georgia’s school health capacity and to conduct research to inform Georgia’s foundations about the best options for collaborative work to address overweight children in Georgia. Staff have been working with the grantees to identify technical assistance needs, develop logic models and conduct an evaluation of their activities. The Center has collaborated with the Community Psychology Program to conduct the evaluation of the grantees. (Two years, $125,000)
Community Health Systems Development
Community Health Systems Development program focuses on increasing access to primary care and improving the health status of rural residents locally and nationally by restructuring local health care systems. More than $4 million in grants support Georgia Health Policy Center’s programs to increase access to care, improve health status and maximize limited health resources.
Central Georgia Cancer Coalition. Karen Minyard, Chris Parker. The Central Georgia Cancer Coalition is a 30-month initiative to assist Community Health Works (a rural health network in Central Georgia) with the planning and development of a Regional Program of Excellence in Central Georgia. The deliverables of this project consist of the establishment of a multi-disciplinary team of experts to assist in the planning and oversight of the program, definition of the scope and methodology of the project, information gathering and dissemination, and facilitation of meetings. (30 months, $120,000)
Rural Health Network Technical Assistance Program (RHN TAP). Patricia Kota. RHN TAP is an 18-month initiative designed to provide technical assistance to the 52 Rural Health Networks and eight Delta State Rural Health Networks funded by HRSA Office of Rural Health Policy in 30 states throughout the United States. Georgia Health Policy Center manages a team of national rural health experts and consultants, who provide tailored technical assistance, facilitation, mediation and consultation to participating communities. (18 months, $1,000,000)
Access Georgia Rural Health Matching Grants Initiative. Patricia Kota. The Rural Health Matching Grants Initiative is in its third year of making grants to improve access and health status and reducing health disparities for under served populations in rural areas. The Georgia Health Policy Center manages these grants, provides tailored technical assistance and this year is helping networks across Georgia develop business and fundraising plans to increase sustainability. The initiative is made possible by the Philanthropic Collaborative for a Healthy Georgia and the Georgia Department of Community Health. ($371,000)
Central Georgia Cancer Coalition. Chris Parker. The Central Georgia Cancer Coalition is a 30-month initiative to assist Community Health Works (a rural health network in Central Georgia) with the planning and development of a Regional Program of Excellence in Central Georgia. The deliverables of this project consist of the establishment of a multi-disciplinary scope and methodology of the project, information gathering and dissemination and the facilitation of meetings. (30 months, $120,000)
Georgia Health Policy Center helps shape how Georgia addresses the costs – both monetary and societal – of the uninsured. Private foundations and state and federal agencies invested more than $9 million in projects to examine the role of community initiatives in managing care for the uninsured, study health care coverage for young adults, develop a strategy for providing affordable health insurance in Georgia and evaluate existing services including Medicaid, PeachCare for Kids and Indigent Care Trust Fund.
Georgia Indigent Care Trust Fund Primary Care Evaluation. Glenn M. Landers. Under a contract with the Georgia Department of Community Health, the Health Policy Center completed 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 15 percent of its ICTF dollars to primary care services. Ninety-two hospitals participated in the program in 2003, accounting for almost $55,000,000 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. ($242,900)
HRSA State Planning Grant for the Uninsured. Karen Minyard, Glenn Landers, Tina Anderson Smith, Chris Parker, Lindsey Lonergan. Georgia Health Policy Center was recently tapped by the state to implement a major federal grant aimed at reducing the number of uninsured. Georgia is one of only nine states selected for the grant to design pilot programs that have the potential to make health insurance more available and affordable throughout the state. Made possible by a $400,000 grant from the Health Resources and Services Administration, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, the pilot planning project will allow Georgia to empower four of its communities to develop public/private partnerships and programs that positively impact the number of uninsured in their respective regions. Programs will be designed in the rural communities of Dalton and Brunswick, and in two urban centers, Atlanta and Macon. ($400,000)
Making Coverage for the Uninsured: The Role of Community Initiatives. Karen Minyard, Chris Parker, Lindsey Lonergan. Funded by Commonwealth Fund and in partnership with Mathematica Policy Research, Georgia Health Policy Center studied five communities throughout the United States to understand how specific initiatives have developed and sustained financing to provide care for the uninsured, and presented findings to inform policymakers and communities that are trying to replicate these projects. (Six months, $150,000)
Improving Outreach and Utilization in PeachCare for Kids and Medicaid. Mary Ann Phillips, Bernette McColley, Mark Rivera. In the third year of this contract, the Georgia Health Policy Center coordinated activities related to enhancing the utilization of primary care services for children enrolled in the Department of Community Health’s PeachCare for Kids and Medicaid programs. The activities included monitoring and evaluating grants that were awarded to six community agencies around Georgia. In addition to the work related to the utilization grantees, outreach materials were developed in both English and Spanish to explain some of the Department’s programs. (Three years, $1,000,000)
Evaluation of Georgia's Children's Health Insurance Program (CHIP). Mei Zhou, Mary Ann Phillips, Kathleen Adams. Georgia Health Policy Center is 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 an evaluation of health insurance claims data. Results support policy and program development at DMA, and also are reported to the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, to be combined with results of other state CHIP programs. ($173,000)
Member and Provider Satisfaction Surveys and Analysis for Georgia Medicaid and PeachCare Claims Service. Glenn M. Landers, Mei Zhou. Under contract with Affiliated Computer Services, the Georgia Health Policy Center conducts semi-annual provider and member satisfaction surveys and analysis to ensure high levels of service from one of the state's largest vendors. ($244,000)
State Coverage Initiatives: Modeling Premium Supports. Pat Ketsche, Mei Zhou. With support from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and in partnership with the Georgia Department of Community Health, the Georgia Health Policy Center will model the cost and policy impacts of instituting a private market premium support program with emphasis on its effect for the uninsured children and the working uninsured living in rural Georgia. ($300,000)
Micro-simulation Model Development. William Custer, William Smith. With support from the Healthcare Georgia Foundation, the Center will develop a micro-simulation model for evaluating the impact of multiple changes in eligibility or participation requirements for Medicaid and PeachCare on affected health consumers. The project will also quantify the economic impact on Georgia's economy resulting from federal Medicaid funds. ($133,428)
The Child Policy Initiative aims to improve child outcomes and child and family policies in Georgia through applied policy analysis and research. Nearly $2 million in grants, from public and private sources, fund programs in the areas of school health, childhood obesity, health care needs of children in state custody and childcare quality.
Health Needs of Foster Children. Glenn M. Landers, Mei Zhou. This project analyzed Medicaid and PeachCare claims data to determine gaps and duplications in Georgia’s provision of health care services to foster children. ($20,000)
Oral Health Data Project. Monica Herk, Katherine Gardner. This project provides claims data analysis for the Georgia Oral Health Prevention Program and consulting to Division of Public Health staff. ($16,486)
Evaluation of The Bridge. Mary Ann Phillips, Mei Zhou, James Emshoff, Dawud Ujamaa. The Bridge is an intermediate care residential treatment center located in Atlanta for youth between the ages of 12 and 17. The purpose of this evaluation is to determine whether the effectiveness of the solution-focused approach as practiced by The Bridge improves measured outcomes for youth post-discharge relative to other therapeutic approaches. Staff are collaborating with the GSU College of Arts and Sciences' Community Psychology Program. (One year, $22,000)
Georgia Division of Public Health Contract to Address Obesity and Chronic Disease. Mary Ann Phillips, Bernette McColley. Georgia Health Policy Center is under contract with the Georgia Division of Public Health to assist them with their planning grant from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to provide leadership to the state for the prevention of obesity and other chronic diseases by promoting good nutrition and physical activity. Staff activities include conducting extensive literature review, coordinating a statewide survey of public health staff and their partner organizations, and facilitating a statewide task force. (One year, $66,000)
Georgia Health Policy Center is a respected voice on long-term care policy, program development and evaluation in Georgia. The program conducts sound, evidence-based research that contributes to the current body of knowledge on long-term care in the United States.
Long-Term Care Partnership. Glenn M. Landers, James P. Cooney, Jr. Under the direction of Principle Investigator James P. Cooney, Jr., Georgia Health Policy Center 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. ($1,250,444)
Real Choices System Change Grant: Peer Supports for the Elderly. Glenn M. Landers. As part of the Georgia Department of Human Resources' overall Real Choices Systems Change Grant, the Center will assist the department in identifying national models of peer support used to assist elderly individuals to transition from nursing facilities back into a community environment. The peer support model has proven to be successful in transitioning individuals with disabilities from institutions to the community, and it is thought that the model might be applicable to the aging community. ($35,000)
Correlation of the Personal Care Attendant Hour Allotment Worksheet (PCA-HAW) with the Functional Independence Measure (FIM): A Statistical Analysis. Glenn M. Landers, Mei Zhou. The Georgia Health Policy Center was engaged by the Shepherd Spinal Center in Atlanta, Ga., to assist in validating an assessment instrument (the Personal Care Attendant Hour Allotment Worksheet or PCA-HAW) designed to predict the number of hours of paid direct care required by patients enrolled in Shepherd Care, the Georgia Medicaid community-based demonstration waiver program designed to assist individuals with brain and spinal cord injuries. Shepherd Care staff hypothesize that if the PCA-HAW is proven to be a reliable predicator of paid direct care hours, its use could be adopted for the Independent Care Waiver Program (ICWP) population statewide. ($3,500)
Glenn M. Landers. "Rebalancing Georgia's Long-Term Care System," Issue Brief, Georgia Health Policy Center, March 2004.
James T. Beck. "Finding Health Insurance: Coverage After College," Issue Brief, Georgia Health Policy Center, June 2004.
Glenn M. Landers. "Final Report: The Georgia Long-term Care Partnership 2001-2004," Issue Brief, Georgia Health Policy Center, June 2004.
Glenn M. Landers. "Expanding Health Care Access with DSH: Georgia’s Indigent Care Trust Fund," Issue Brief, Georgia Health Policy Center, November 2004.
Glenn M. Landers. "Georgia’s Foster Care Children and the Medicaid System," Issue Brief, Georgia Health Policy Center, December 2004.
"Georgia Healthcare Coverage Project; Insuring the Uninsured: Three Models for Financing Health," funded by HRSA, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, April 2004.
"Georgia Healthcare Coverage Project; A View of Small Business Owners," funded by HRSA, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, April 2004.
Multiple authors. "Preventing Overweight Children in Georgia Opportunities for Foundations and Grantmakers."
1. For a complete listing of AYSPS Active Research Sponsored Grants from CY2004, see the Appendix: Report on External Funding.
