Blue Shield of California Foundation Announces $9.1 Million in Second-Quarter Grantmaking

Funding aims to improve systems and access to health care and domestic violence services for the most vulnerable

San Francisco, CA (June 25, 2013) — Blue Shield of California Foundation (BSCF) announced today more than $9.1 million in second-quarter grantmaking. With full implementation of health reform less than six months away, many of these grants take advantage of urgent opportunities to make progress on enrollment and transitions into coverage for low-income Californians. Additional investments will support innovative approaches and new partnerships to address and prevent domestic violence. 

"We continue to focus on the core issues that we believe will transform systems and improve access to California’s healthcare safety net and domestic violence services," said Peter Long, Ph.D., president and CEO of BSCF. "These grants will support promising practices and projects designed to have immediate impacts as we approach January 1, 2014 and lay the groundwork for long-term changes.”

With this quarter’s investments, the Foundation reinforces its longstanding role as a partner and supporter of California’s safety net providers. This includes new funding for the Clinic Leadership Institute to train emerging leaders and new chief executives in community health centers, as well as grants to enhance performance measurement and evaluation capacity, and enable new mergers and restructuring by community health centers.

In light of the shifting policy landscape around immigration reform, this round of grants also funds new research to inform policymakers on issues and opportunities related to the residually uninsured – including undocumented citizens. 

As part of the Foundation’s commitment to ending domestic violence, grants awarded in this quarter provide support for collaboration and coordination of services across organizations and sectors, as well as funds to strengthen key family law components of the legal system, and state-level advocacy to integrate domestic violence prevention into the policy dialogue.

Details about BSCF second-quarter grants are below:

HEALTH CARE AND COVERAGE ($5,321,780):
The following grants are designed to strengthen the state’s healthcare safety net to ensure that all Californians have access to high-quality, effective, and affordable health care:

Tides Center (Statewide; $130,000): To support research and policy development through The Children’s Partnership, needed to create a seamless California enrollment and renewal system with linkages across health and non-health programs. 

Asian Pacific American Legal Center of Southern California, Inc. (Statewide; $100,000): To research and disseminate policy options to maximize coverage opportunities for immigrant communities as California implements the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act . 

National Immigration Law Center (Statewide; $100,000): To conduct policy analysis to address the gaps in and barriers to affordable healthcare coverage and services faced by low-income immigrant Californians. 

Kaiser Family Foundation (Statewide; $252,000): To conduct a survey of the low-income population in California, to be fielded in conjunction with a parallel national survey, that will provide timely data to inform how the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act  is affecting health coverage, healthcare access, and the financial security of low- and moderate-income individuals. 

The Regents of the University of California, San Francisco (Statewide; $2,115,791): To deliver a core project of BSCF, the Clinic Leadership Institute (CLI) through the Center for the Health Professions, including a seventh cohort of 25 emerging community health center leaders, the nEXt program for new chief executives, and alumni activities. 

JSI Research & Training Institute, Inc. (Statewide; $380,703): To support payment reform efforts in California’s safety net, by assessing the feasibility of a social accountable care organization model for California’s county hospital systems and planning for and implementation of payment reform strategies within community health centers (CHCs), public hospitals, and county health systems. 

Integrated Healthcare Association (Los Angeles, CA; $150,000): To accelerate performance improvements in Medi-Cal contracted physician groups by developing performance metrics for physician groups and pilot reporting of these metrics to three public Medi-Cal managed care plans. 

The Regents of the University of California, San Francisco (Statewide; $387,764): To expand research and tools available to safety net providers that promote more coordinated, integrated systems of care for California’s uninsured and underinsured residents and identify policy opportunities for care integration within the safety net. 

Nonprofit Finance Fund (Statewide; $250,000): To support the continuation and expansion of the California Catalyst Fund to provide technical assistance for CHCs and consortia engaged in strategic restructuring to expand healthcare service delivery and improve efficiency. 

Coverage Expansion under the ACA ($925,258): 
This group of grants is focused on helping counties maximize enrollment in Low Income Health Programs (LIHP) in 2013 and transition LIHP enrollees and uninsured residents into coverage through Medi-Cal or Covered California. Funds will support the following organizations: 

• County of San Luis Obispo (Central; $114,639)
• Mariposa County Human Services Department (Central; $84,318)
• Merced County Department of Public Health (Central; $147,981)
• San Joaquin County Behavioral Health Services (Central; $128,378)
• Stanislaus County Health Services Agency (Central; $124,942)
• Tulare County Health and Human Services Agency (Central; $150,000)
• Alameda County Social Services Agency (San Francisco Bay Area; $75,000)
• County of Sonoma Department of Health Services (San Francisco Bay Area; $100,000)

The Regents of the University of California, Los Angeles (Statewide; $530,264): To continue and conclude the evaluation of the impact of the LIHP on expanding coverage and improving access to care for uninsured Californians and to help the state Department of Health Care Services transition LIHP enrollees into Medi-Cal. 

BLUE SHIELD AGAINST VIOLENCE ($915,235) 
The following grants are aimed at expanding access to domestic violence (DV) services and improving DV systems: 

Asian Americans for Community Involvement (San Francisco Bay Area; $55,235): To fund the Santa Clara Domestic Violence Advocacy Consortium to assess the feasibility of consolidating DV services and utilizing web and mobile phone-based technology to improve service access in Santa Clara County. 

La Piana Consulting (Statewide; $190,000): To provide strategic restructuring and collaborative technical assistance to DV service providers in California. 

Center for Domestic Peace (San Francisco Bay Area; $185,000): To develop a joint business model to consolidate key financial functions of six member agencies of the San Francisco Bay Area Domestic Violence Shelter Collaboration.

CORA – Community Overcoming Relationship Abuse (San Francisco Bay Area; $65,000): To conduct a system-wide audit of DV services in San Mateo County to improve communications, policies, partnerships, and intervention efforts among multiple partners serving DV survivors.

California Partnership to End Domestic Violence (Statewide; $320,000): To provide general operating support to California’s statewide DV membership coalition.  

Family Violence Appellate Project (Statewide; $100,000): To provide appellate representation to DV survivors and training for California legal professionals to create case law on state protective statutes that will benefit DV survivors and their children. 

SPECIAL PROJECT GRANTS ($2,950,000) 
The following grants have been approved in special areas to broaden the visibility of important health topics in the media, as well as to ensure the successful transition of a long-standing Foundation legacy project. 

Kaiser Family Foundation (National; $350,000): To increase national and local press coverage of issues affecting the healthcare safety net in California and surrounding states.  

Pacific Business Group on Health (National; $2,600,000): To support a public, California-based project that builds off of the work of the California Technology Assessment Forum (CTAF) and provides patients, clinicians and other stakeholders with access to the best contemporary evidence on the effectiveness and value of healthcare services. 

ABOUT BLUE SHIELD OF CALIFORNIA FOUNDATION
Blue Shield of California Foundation is one of the state’s largest and most trusted grantmaking organizations. Our mission is to improve the lives of all Californians, particularly the underserved, by making health care accessible, effective, and affordable, and by ending domestic violence. For more information visit: www.blueshieldcafoundation.org.

The Foundation was formed by Blue Shield of California, a not-for-profit corporation with more than 3.3 million members, 5,000 employees, and 16 offices throughout California. Visit: www.blueshieldca.com.