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Arkansas, California, Mississippi, New York, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Wisconsin each have been awarded three to four-year grants of up to $1 million to provide timely, detail-rich data on pertinent health care issues. These states are part of a core group selected in 1992 to participate in the program.

The grants are designed to help state policymakers make the most informed decisions about health programs that directly affect their state's population. As part of the Information for State Health Policy program, each state has established an interagency workgroup including consumers, health care providers, elected officials, payers and health program administrators to identify their state's major health care needs.

"With health care reform on the forefront of state and national policy agendas, states must be prepared to respond to their own informational needs," said Steven A. Schroeder, M.D., president of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. "State officials constantly make decisions that directly affect people's health. Yet, most states lack the human and technological resources necessary to provide the high-quality, quick responses to the broad spectrum of questions posed by decision-makers.

"States have been given a large role in developing health care policy, and with this responsibility there comes a whole range of issues that require a great deal of statistical information. It is this kind of information on which changes in health care services and financing will be based," Dr. Schroeder added.

Since 1981, when the federal Cooperative Health Statistics System ceased funding all but vital statistics, state health agencies have had difficulty in maintaining adequate support for their data collection operations.

Those receiving funds plan to address the following issues:

• Arkansas Center for Health Statistics: fiscal issues inclusive of insurance reform and cost containment; focus on teenage pregnancy, infant mortality and low birthweight ($650,000);
• California Health and Welfare Agency: Improving access to primary care services ($1 million);
• Mississippi Office of the Governor, Division of Medicaid: Improving health care access, utilization of inpatient care, Medicare funds; coordination of preventive and primary ambulatory care ($924,187);
• New York Department of Health: Increasing access to health care, detailed information on special populations, health status and coverage, and studying substance services use and costs ($998,787);
• North Carolina Department of Environment, Health and Natural Resources: Constraining escalating health care costs; focus on maternal/child health, long-term care ($750,000);
• South Carolina Division of Research and Statistical Services: Improving access to health care through insurance coverage; focus on cost containment, elderly, mental illness and substance abuse ($925,000); and
• Wisconsin Center for Health Statistics: Reducing the need for acute care through preventive services for pregnant women and infants, children; and appropriate use of long-term care services for people with chronic conditions ($749,996).

The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation was established in 1972 as the nation's largest health care philanthropy. It concentrates its grantmaking in these areas: assuring access to basic health care; improving the way services are organized and provided to people with chronic health conditions; promoting health and preventing disease by reducing harm caused by substance abuse; and helping the nation address the problem of rising health care costs. Last year, the Foundation awarded more than $220 million to support programs in these areas. 

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