Avoidable Hospitalizations

Georgia Health Policy Center worked to improve health care in eight of the most rural, medically under served states in the country. The Center conducted research and provided strategic planning for eight Southern states: Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, South Carolina, East Texas and West Virginia

An Assessment of Health Care Safety Net Services in Seven Metropolitan Atlanta Counties

The Georgia Health Policy Center (GHPC), the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the National Network of Public Health Institutes began collaboration in the summer of 2007 on a project designed to establish a framework for public health to help inform the health reform debate. The partnership set out to broaden the health reform conversation to include health promotion, health improvement, and disease prevention. The effort included background research, focus groups, key interviews with internal and external stakeholders from local, state, and national groups, and additional convenings of local, state, and national partners. This report highlights opportunities for public health to bridge the different levels of health reform and create strategies and policies that could be implemented on each level

Expanding Health Care Access with DSH: Georgia's Indigent Care Trust Fund

A documentation of the Georgia Health Policy Center's review of the primary care requirement of Georgia's Indigent Care Trust Fund (ICTF) - Georgia's mechanism for administering federal disproportionate share hospital dollars

Whether Health Departments Should Provide Clinical Services After the Implementation of the Affordable Care Act

I have described a decision support tool that may facilitate local decisions regarding the provision and billing of clinical services. I created a 2 by 2 matrix of health professional shortage and Medicaid expansion availability as of July 2015. I found that health departments in 93% of US counties may still need to provide clinical services despite the institution of the Affordable Care Act. Local context and market conditions should guide health departments’ decision to act as safety net providers

Pilot Planning Grant

Report summarizing key findings of focus groups assessing Georgians' attitudes and opinions regarding the development of a plan for providing affordable insurance coverage statewide

The Impact of Medicaid Peer Support Utilization on Cost

Peer support programs have proliferated over the past decade, building on recovery oriented programming, yet relationships between peer support services and the costs to public programs have not been well described in literature. The purpose of this study is to fill gaps in the literature related to peer support programs and cost: lack of comparison groups, small sample sizes, and the availability of research examining utilization of Medicaid mental health services. Methods: The study employed a retrospective design with treatment and comparison groups created from three administrative databases. Three ordinary least squares regression models were constructed to predict crisis stabilization cost, psychiatric hospitalization cost, and total Medicaid cost while controlling for other factors. The Chronic Illness and Disability Payment System + Rx was used to control for illness severity. Results: Peer support was associated with $5,991 higher total Medicaid cost (p \u3c .01). Peer support was also associated with higher crisis stabilization cost and lower psychiatric hospitalization cost, but the relationships were not statistically significant. Peer support was associated with$2,100 higher prescription drug cost (p \u3c .01), $5,116 higher professional services cost (p \u3c .01), and$1,225 lower facility cost (p \u3c .01). Conclusions: While the implementation of Medicaid financed peer support programs may not result in savings from reductions of costly crisis stabilizations and psychiatric hospitalizations, it does support the principles of self-direction and recovery from severe mental illness. State policy makers must weigh the potential higher cost associated with peer support programs with efforts to redesign the delivery of mental health services

Medicaid and PeachCare for Kids: Customer Service Satisfaction Survey - Members

An analysis to determine if national findings applied to the health care experiences of Georgia foster children in comparison to other Medicaid children

Health Care for the Uninsured in Metro Atlanta

What is the state of metro Atlanta's health care safety net

Center Presents on Long-Term Care at Conference on the Impact of Aging on Georgia

A Community-Campus Partnerships for Health peer-reviewed article on the power of strategic alignment in health policy