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Health Affairs, 26, no. 3 (2007):
877-879
doi: 10.1377/hlthaff.26.3.877 © 2007 by Project HOPE |
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GrantWatch |
GrantWatch: Outcomes
| California Health Policy |
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Data from the 2005 California Health Interview Survey (CHIS) were released in January 2007. The California Department of Health Services (CDHS), California Endowment (TCE), National Cancer Institute, Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF), Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and others funded CHIS 2005. CHIS, conducted every two years by the University of California, Los Angeles, Center for Health Policy Research, in collaboration with the CDHS and the Public Health Institute, is considered "the most comprehensive source of health information on Californians," said a press release. AskCHIS, "the survey’s popular, user-friendly web tool," which is funded by TCE, lets users "quickly obtain survey statistics for hundreds of health topics and trend data across survey years." Also, raw data can be downloaded at no charge via public-use files. CHIS includes data on health insurance coverage, cancer, dental health, and many other topics. The 2005 survey adds expanded "content on mental health, as well as diet and physical activity," and its child sample is larger, the release noted.
For more information, go to http://www.chis.ucla.edu. "California County Uninsurance Rates Vary Greatly," a February 2007 fact sheet, is also available at this site. TCE and the California Wellness Foundation (TCWF) funded that document.
"On Sustainability: Assessing the Long-Term Impact of Three TCWF Initiatives," a November 2006 report, contains results of an evaluation of fifty-one grantees from TCWF’s Health Improvement, Children and Youth Community Health, and Work and Health Initiatives. (Each initiative was funded at "$20 million between 1996 and 2002.") Group Health Community Foundation evaluated grantees for their sustainability, broader effects (their "legacy"), or both. Good news is reported on sustainability: "Almost half of the accomplishments" of the grantees analyzed "were sustained at similar or higher levels three to four years after the initiatives ended." Among the lessons learned is that "programs are more likely to be sustained when [public] policies are in place that support community health improvement; and foundations have a role in the promotion of those policies." Fatima Angeles of TCWF told Health Affairs that an example of this is the needle-exchange policy in Mendocino County, California. "Key informants" said that it was "a ‘huge success’ " and "continues to have the support of the Board of Supervisors." The report cites the Center for Health Improvement, in Sacramento, as an example of an important legacy: It "has developed a national reputation for its work in prevention-oriented policy" and has been "a model" for other policy-related groups in the state capital.
The report is available at http://www.tcwf.org/pub_reflections/nov_2006.htm.
| HIV/AIDS |
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 TopCalifornia Health Policy HIV/AIDS Obesity PreventionSCHIPKey Personnel Changes And... |
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The International Center for AIDS Care and Treatment Programs (ICAP) reported that more than 158,000 HIV-infected people in Africa and Asia are receiving care and treatment through ICAP, according to a February 2007 press release. ICAP, based at Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health, is providing antiretroviral treatment to more than 75,000 of those people. (ICAP began in 2004; more than 134,000 people were receiving care and treatment as of September 2006.) Among the activities supported by its broad-based programs are "infrastructure development, laboratory renovations, provider training, [and] monitoring and evaluation." The center has programs in thirteen countries, including Ethiopia, Kenya, Mozambique, South Africa, Uganda, and Thailand. Its programs are funded by the U.S. President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR); the Bill and Melinda Gates, William and Flora Hewlett, Henry J. Kaiser Family, John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur, David and Lucile Packard, Rockefeller, and Starr Foundations; and the RWJF. Mailman’s dean, Allan Rosenfield, said in the release that "ICAP has built a proven model for fighting HIV/AIDS in resource-limited settings" and adds that in the future, ICAP may even "enhance health services for all people in the communities where ICAP works."
For more information, go to http://www.mailmanschool.org/news/display.asp?id=517.
| Obesity Prevention |
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| TopCalifornia Health PolicyHIV/AIDSObesity PreventionSCHIPKey Personnel Changes And... |
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"Reversing the Obesity Epidemic: Policy Strategies for Health Funders" was the subject of a November 2006 Grantmakers In Health (GIH) issue dialogue held in Washington, D.C., and funded by Kaiser Permanente, the W.K. Kellogg Foundation, and the RWJF. Eduardo Sanchez, former commissioner of the Texas Department of State Health Services and now director of the University of Texas School of Public Health’s Institute for Health Policy, was among the speakers. He began by saying that "the obesity epidemic is not a myth" and that we need to get "more serious" about it. Basing some of his presentation on a 2006 Institute of Medicine (IOM) report, he said that among its recommendations is leadership in the obesity prevention effort—some of his fellow IOM panel members would agree that the same "kind of attention that has been given to pandemic influenza preparation" and Medicare Part D is needed. He also mentioned a troubling statistic: "In Texas, [about] 40 percent of fourth graders are overweight or obese." He suggested that foundations convene groups interested in preventing obesity, to "maybe reduce duplication" of efforts and "use resources more wisely." They should also work with schools to make them "a healthy environment" and realize that "parents have some responsibility" for the childhood obesity problem. Sanchez said that former Texas commissioner of agriculture Susan Combs requested release of public information from every Texas school district about "pouring contracts" with soda companies and posted the results on the agriculture department’s Web site. (In part, it was legislative inaction that led to Combs’s actions after the 2003 legislative session, Sanchez later explained to Health Affairs.) Combs’s belief was that the "health of kids" had become "secondary to [raising money] for band uniforms," Sanchez said.
Molly Voris of the National Governors Association spoke about what Medicaid programs were doing to encourage healthy lifestyles. The Deficit Reduction Act (DRA) of 2005 is allowing states to use innovative ways to save both lives and money, she said. For example, West Virginia allows Medicaid enrollees to sign a "member agreement" that holds the enrollee accountable for certain personal health responsibilities. By signing and adhering to the agreement, enrollees have access to an "enhanced benefit package." Providers track adherence and report back to the state. Voris also mentioned reforms in Florida, Idaho, and Kentucky. Among the ways that grantmakers can help out, Voris said, are to educate (1) Medicaid enrollees about any new wellness benefits in their state’s program and (2) Medicaid providers about Medicaid services and materials.
For more information, see this February 2007 report, http://www.gih.org/usr_doc/Obesity_Issue_Brief2.pdf, or contact Brent Ewig at bewig{at}gih.org.
| SCHIP |
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| TopCalifornia Health PolicyHIV/AIDSObesity PreventionSCHIPKey Personnel Changes And... |
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The RWJF has launched a print and broadcast advertising campaign "to support congressional reauthorization of the State Children’s Health Insurance Program (SCHIP)," according to a 7 March 2007 press release. "SCHIP is America’s most successful effort to provide health coverage to uninsured children, but the program is in danger," Risa Lavizzo-Mourey, president and chief executive officer (CEO) of the RWJF, stated in the release. The foundation was planning to spend $3 million on the ads, which were to run in March and April 2007. GMMB, a firm in Washington, D.C., created the ads. The television ads, saying "Let’s make history; let’s get every child covered" by health insurance, show a cute little boy who is outdoors, blowing bubbles. The print ads feature a toddler looking for insects in the grass and use the same slogan. This campaign is part of the broader Cover the Uninsured effort, which is spearheaded by the RWJF but has numerous other national partners, such as TCE and the Kellogg Foundation.
To see the ads, go to http://www.CoverTheUninsured.org/ads.
| Key Personnel Changes And News |
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| TopCalifornia Health PolicyHIV/AIDSObesity PreventionSCHIPKey Personnel Changes And... |
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Susan Berresford announced in 2006 that she will retire from the presidency of the Ford Foundation in January 2008. She joined its staff in 1970 and has held other positions there.
Julio Frenk, Mexico’s secretary of health from 2000 to 2006, has joined the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation’s Global Health Program as a senior fellow, the funder announced in March 2007. Frenk, who holds a medical degree, will advise Gates on various topics. Earlier in his career, Frenk was executive vice president of the Mexican Health Foundation (Funsalud).
Mario Gutierrez, director of rural and agricultural worker health programs at TCE, has received GIH’s 2007 Terrance Keenan Leadership Award in Health Philanthropy. At a 15 February 2007 luncheon in Miami, Florida, Gutierrez said that most of those in the audience now view their "foundation’s resources... as investments in organizations and communities—not just charitable gifts." However, he asked, are investments of funders’ endowments "consistent with the mission, values, and strategic focus of our respective foundations?" He advocated "a triple bottom-line investment philosophy that is not only economically profitable, but [also] socially just and environmentally sound." Also, he told colleagues that "poverty and structural racism" must be eliminated; traditional health foundations should form coalitions with funders in other sectors—for example, those that award grants for economic development.
In other endowment news, Laura Hogan has been promoted to vice president of program. She will now oversee all of the foundation’s grant-making programs and initiatives—which total about "$160 million per year in funding," said a February 2007 press release.
Christine Koehn has been promoted to vice president for programs at the Quantum Foundation. She succeeds Tim Henderson, who resigned.
Len McCandliss announced in October 2006 that he will retire by mid-2007 as president and CEO of Sierra Health Foundation. McCandliss has held that job for some twenty-two years—since Sierra Health began its grant making.
Ariel Pablos-Méndez was expected to rejoin the Rockefeller Foundation in April 2007 as a managing director. A physician and epidemiologist, he was previously director of knowledge management and sharing at the World Health Organization and an associate professor of clinical medicine and public health at Columbia University. Pablos-Méndez will use his experience to work on several Rockefeller initiatives, "currently in development," in the areas of public and global health, a spokesperson told Health Affairs. She also mentioned that Rockefeller’s board is considering an initiative on pandemics. Also, Derek Yach, the former director of the funder’s now-closed Health Equity program, has become director–global health policy at PepsiCo, said a February 2007 press release.
Dick Shirk has been elected chairman of the board of the Healthcare Georgia Foundation, said a March 2007 press release. Before his retirement in 2002, he was the chairman and CEO of Cerulean Companies and president and CEO of its wholly owned subsidiary, Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Georgia.
Karen Voci has been named executive director of the Harvard Pilgrim Health Care Foundation. She was previously senior vice president for program at the Rhode Island Foundation.
| Editor's Notes |
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New Grant Watch content appears twice a month at http://www.healthaffairs.org. To request an e-mail alert when new content is posted, send e-mail to Lee-Lee Prina at lprina{at}projecthope.org. Grant Watch is funded in part by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and the California Wellness Foundation.
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