Managed Care - August 2008 - (Page 21) 1999 sale of Blue Cross Blue Shield of New Hampshire to Anthem, borrowed from the World Health Organization in defining its mission as “. . . the state of complete physical, mental, and social well being, not merely the absence of disease or infirmity.” Most foundations bestow grants on those that specialize in the delivery of health care, according to a 2003 analysis of Blue Cross Blue Shield health plan conversion foundations conducted by LECG, a California-based organization that provides experts and testimony to governments and corporations. For instance, the $130 million Healthcare Georgia Foundation gave $185,000 to a free clinic in Savannah targeting underinsured and underserved people. Clinic doctors and nurses treat 9,000 patients annually. The foundation was formed with assets from BlueCross BlueShield of Georgia’s conversion to WellPoint. LECG concluded that to the conditions in East Africa and may be suffering from health conditions that could make them prone to violence. The California Endowment gave a $425,000 three-year grant to PolicyLink in Oakland to study the environmental factors that trigger asthma attacks in children, such as cockroaches and air pollution. PolicyLink is working to encourage schools to post daily air quality reports. It helps to file lawsuits against landlords to hold them accountable for slum housing conditions with the goal of keeping kids prone to asthma attacks out of emergency rooms. Moreover, foundations fund a large proportion of health care research and demonstration projects, a task once largely within the realm of the government. “In some cases, these foundations are the largest source of health funds outside of government,” says Lauren LeRoy, PhD, president and CEO While some foundations do important work, others don’t make a big difference, says Aaron Dorfman of the National Committee for Responsive Philanthropy. extent that a Blue Cross conversion results in some people losing health insurance coverage, the foundations are likely to offset this with funding that provides direct medical care. Foundations created from non-Blues support the provision of health services as well. The Health Foundation of Greater Indianapolis, with $30 million in assets, has given $6 million since 2001 for the salaries of nurse practitioners and physician assistants in 74 Indianapolis area elementary schools that could not afford school nurses. HFGI derives from the conversion of Metropolitan Health Council of Indianapolis to HealthAmerica. But for the most part, foundation executives choose to define “health” broadly, providing grants to groups that prevent teen-age pregnancy, substance abuse, youth smoking, and violence. By way of example, the California Wellness Foundation, formed from Health Net assets in 1992, administers the California Peace Prize, honoring unsung heroes working to curtail violence in California neighborhoods. One recipient of the $25,000 prize, Sahra Abdi, works with Somali and east African refugee mothers who have fled violent of Grantmakers in Health, a Washington, D.C. educational group serving health philanthropies. For instance, the Health Foundation of Greater Cincinnati with about $250 million in assets, most from the 1995 conversion of ChoiceCare to Humana, is the biggest financial supporter of the Health Policy Institute of Ohio. Health Policy provides nonpartisan information to state officials and is playing a key role in the reform debate. Some foundations, like the Endowment for Health in New Hampshire and Maine Health Access Foundation, are the largest funders of health programs in their states. Health foundation comparison It is important to put conversion foundations in perspective. There are tens of thousands of U.S. foundations. A substantial number of these have at least a partial focus on health care, according to LECG researchers. The Bill and Melinda Gates and Robert Wood Johnson foundations alone, the country’s largest private health funders, give more than $2 billion annually to health causes, reports the Foundation Center in Manhattan, a database of AUGUST 2008 / MANAGED CARE 21
For optimal viewing of this digital publication, please enable JavaScript and then refresh the page. If you would like to try to load the digital publication without using Flash Player detection, please click here.