Our Grantees
NYSHealth grantees reflect the geographic, economic, social, cultural, and ethnic diversity of the Empire State. The tabs below comprise all of NYSHealth's grants, both those that are in progress and those that are complete. A grant's status is noted at the top of its description.
For some completed grants, NYSHealth compiles grant outcomes reports to be transparent in our grantmaking, share the results of our investments, and the lessons both we and our grantees have learned. These reports also help us understand the aggregate of our outcomes in our various grantmaking areas, evaluate our work, and understand our overall impact on health.
The State of New York is federally mandated by the Affordable Care Act (ACA) to deploy a fully operational health insurance exchange (NY-HX) by January 1, 2014. The solution must meet Federal certification requirements by January 1, 2013 and be capable of supporting open enrollment services by mid-2013. Social Interest Solutions (SIS), a national IT systems and policy organization, will provide support services to assist the State with meeting timelines and developing the most efficient, user-friendly Exchange system possible. This project will move the State forward in starting up an effective NY-HX including: supporting the development of a high-level Exchange Requirements; supporting New York’s involvement in the User Experience project (conducted in partnership with other states, foundations and Federal agencies); and providing technical assistance to the State in applying for a Federal Establishment grant.
Governor Cuomo established the Spending and Government Efficiency (SAGE) Commission in one of his first acts (Executive Order No. 4) to create a more efficient and effective state government. In the health arena, the SAGE Commission is examining how to better manage care for patients across similar agencies, and how to reduce unnecessary and redundant regulatory burdens on care providers. Under this project, the SAGE Commission is completing a reorganization plan for health-related agencies that has the potential to significantly impact health care delivery in New York State for many years, particularly with Medicaid—a $53 billion program that must be run more efficiently. The reorganization plan has the potential to not only create efficiencies and better coordination among the agencies that operate Medicaid-funded programs, but to create better coordination of care that will benefit consumers of these services.
Under the Affordable Care Act (ACA), nearly 2.2 million New Yorkers will be able to access affordable, quality health care coverage through a newly established “exchange.” These exchanges will serve as a central marketplace where individuals and employers can access all public and subsidized private insurance options. Yet, with the influx of consumers expected to seek insurance through the exchange and the newness of the system itself, the potential for errors, omissions, and conflicts is high. The Community Service Society of New York (CSS) will develop a consumer-friendly and consumer-protective system that assists enrollees with accurate navigation and fair, transparent participation throughout this exchange.
A goal of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) is to create market conditions in which insurers’ prices reflect the underlying value and efficiency of their products, rather than the composition of their risk pools. Thus, the ACA provides an opportunity for
The Affordable Care Act (ACA) stipulates new standards on existing insurance markets, and offers New York State discretion and latitude in formulating its own programmatic rules and policies. The United Hospital Fund (UHF) will continue to navigate and analyze the new law’s criteria, with a focus on New York’s public and private insurance markets, along with the essential health benefits and array of provider networks available to New Yorkers. UHF will produce new, actionable information to guide the most immediate State decisions about health reform, both how to operationalize it and how to leverage it for wider gains.
New York State is facing formidable challenges in serving the mental health needs of veterans returning from active duty in Iraq and Afghanistan. Nearly a quarter of veterans have a current probable diagnosis of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and/or major depression, and an additional 34% had a self-indicated need for mental health treatment. Part of the problem is a short supply of mental health professionals who are adequately trained in identifying and addressing veteran-specific mental health issues. To address this issue, NASW-NYS will build on an existing training initiative that will increase the number of mental health professionals who are knowledgeable about and accessible to veterans and their families.
Veterans’ health and wellbeing are the responsibility of both the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs and other clinical and social service delivery systems. However, nearly half of New York State veterans prefer to receive care outside the VA system; therefore, it is vital to support community-based clinical and social services. In addition, 42% of veterans do not have a good understanding of the benefits available to them, indicating a significant need for improved outreach services. To address the needs of the veteran community, the Veterans Outreach Center, Inc. (VOC) is designing and developing a blueprint of its existing model of service and a roadmap to replicate in other organizations throughout New York State.
NYSHealth established the Center for Excellence in Integrated Care (CEIC) in 2008 with a four-year grant to NDRI. CEIC has employed various methods to provide technical assistance to addiction and mental health programs across New York State to help them achieve integrated care for both conditions. The primary component of the initiative involves conducting on-site assessments of a program’s capability to provide integrated care with a tool called the Dual Diagnosis Capability in Addiction [Mental Health] Treatment (DDCA[MH]T) index. To measure whether changes have occurred since the first site visits, CEIC will conduct a second round of the DDCA[MH]T assessments with a representative sample of 150 programs across New York State.
As the nation’s media outlets face shrinking budgets and shoestring staffing, resources for journalists’ continuing education and professional development are limited. Increasingly, reporters are assigned to multiple beats rather than to one specific issue area, so their knowledge of any one area may be relatively superficial. The Center for Excellence in Health Care Journalism, the supporting 501(c)(3) organization for the Association of Health Care Journalists (AHCJ), aims to fill that knowledge gap through an annual four-day national conference that attracts approximately 500 journalists and health care luminaries and covers a wide range of issues, both content-focused (e.g., covering various aspects of the Federal health reform law, health care disparities, issues in aging and long-term care) and skills-focused (e.g., understanding how to read medical studies or interpret hospital quality data).
