Health Affairs

The author is a senior editor at Health Affairs who focuses on global health. The April 2013 GrantWatch column noted the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation’s announcement of the eradication of polio as one of its priorities. Subsequently, the foundation launched the Global Polio Eradication and Endgame Strategic Plan (2013–2018), together with other partners, at... Read the rest of this entry »

The author is president and CEO of the Fannie E. Rippel Foundation, a national health philanthropy located in Morristown, New Jersey. In 2007 the Fannie E. Rippel Foundation set out to understand why changes that we know need to take place in the health system don’t regularly happen and what can be done to remedy... Read the rest of this entry »

GrantWatch Blog invited Matthew Ingram of the Metta Fund, a health foundation that awards grants in San Francisco, to talk about a new program it is funding. Most of us can remember a coach who affected us profoundly at some point in our lives, and to whom we owe the credit for making suggestions that,... Read the rest of this entry »

I recently returned from covering the Grantmakers In Health (GIH) annual meeting in San Francisco, where Rebecca Onie was among the keynote speakers. She was a 2012 Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Young Leader award winner and received a “genius grant” from the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation in 2009. Health Leads, a Boston-based... Read the rest of this entry »

This blog post, with the original title of “Checking In with Grantmakers In Health’s New President and CEO,” first appeared on Health and Environmental Funders Network blog, which is called Giving InSight, on February 11: http://blog.hefn.org/2013/02/11/checking-in-with-grantmakers-in-healths-new-president-and-ceo/  ____________________________ HEFN [Health and Environmental Funders] Director Kathy Sessions spoke with Faith Mitchell, Grantmakers In Health’s [GIH's] newly appointed President and... Read the rest of this entry »

Anne Weiss is a senior program officer who directs the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation’s Quality/Equality Health Care team. The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF) recently released a new report and convened leading policy makers and other influencers for an important discussion on one of the biggest problems facing our health care system: avoidable hospital readmissions.... Read the rest of this entry »

The president and CEO and the vice president of policy and communications at the Connecticut Health Foundation describe its new approach and the successes of its grantees. Foundations often employ the twin strategies of grant making and commissioning and advancing objective policy research, but rarely do the twain meet. Since its inception in 1999, the... Read the rest of this entry »

The author is the president and CEO of the Blue Shield of California Foundation, a statewide funder located in San Francisco. Since the passage of the Affordable Care Act , there has been a persistent, urgent call to produce more primary care physicians. With many provisions of the health reform law to be implemented less... Read the rest of this entry »

My GrantWatch column in the recently released January 2013 issue of Health Affairs focuses on the workforce and foundations’ efforts to strengthen it. The column provides a snapshot of what foundations around the United States are funding. A variety of funders are interested in health professions workforce topics. In my small sampling, it appears that... Read the rest of this entry »

A foundation in Seattle that focuses on oral health has been working to go where their partners in health have long focused: on addressing the health of children before they are born. The mission of the Washington Dental Service Foundation is to prevent dental disease and improve overall health for residents of the state of... Read the rest of this entry »

On December 4, this funder, based in Basking Ridge, New Jersey, announced its intent to invest nearly $13 million in health care funding to four national nonprofits and more than a dozen other locally and regionally focused organizations. Support will include not only cash grants but donations of health information technology. The Verizon Foundation aims to reduce... Read the rest of this entry »

GrantWatch Blog invited this staffer from the Health Foundation for Western and Central New York to report on two community forums it held earlier this month in Buffalo and Syracuse. With the presidential election over and major provisions of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) going into effect just about a year from now, what does... Read the rest of this entry »

The author served on the Institute of Medicine panel that wrote a recent report on the health professions workforce that will be needed to care for older people with mental illness and substance use conditions. He is executive director of the Hogg Foundation for Mental Health, in Austin, Texas. The Institute of Medicine (IOM) report,... Read the rest of this entry »

GrantWatch Blog invited the author, who recently joined the staff of the Foundation for a Healthy Kentucky, to report on its recent Howard L. Bost Memorial Health Policy Forum, which was held in Lexington. On September 17, the Foundation for a Healthy Kentucky held its tenth annual health policy forum in Lexington, Kentucky. (The forum was named... Read the rest of this entry »

The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation sent out its list of 2012 fellows for what some call its “genius grants” yesterday. As I looked through the list of twenty-three new fellows, I was delighted to see the name of Eric Coleman of the University of Colorado School of Medicine. He has done innovative work... Read the rest of this entry »

GrantWatch Blog invited the author, vice president of research and evaluation at the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, to report on a webinar that the funder held this month.  The fortieth anniversary of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF), a national funder, is a time for reflection on how we at the foundation have done, what... Read the rest of this entry »

The author, director of state health policy at the California HealthCare Foundation, discusses how that funder has been working with California officials to support implementation of various pieces of the Affordable Care Act of 2010 at the state level. Federal health reform establishes the framework for sweeping changes to the nation’s health care delivery system... Read the rest of this entry »

My GrantWatch column in the September issue of Health Affairs, “Mental Health: What Foundations Are Funding,” provides a snapshot of foundation efforts around the country to help people who suffer from mental illness. A variety of funders are interested in this topic. In my small sampling, it appears that support for integrated health care, in... Read the rest of this entry »

Editor’s note: Mark Smith is the president and CEO of the California HealthCare Foundation. He also chaired the Institute of Medicine panel that wrote the report–just released today–titled Best Care at Lower Cost: The Path to Continuously Learning Health Care in America. Smith’s blog post below was first published September 5 on GrantWatch Blog’s “big sister”... Read the rest of this entry »

On August 28 I attended the launch of the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation’s Patient Care Program. This national funder, based in Palo Alto, wants to do transformative work in this area and is prepared to commit $500 million over ten years to do it, if all goes well. Yes, you read that right: that... Read the rest of this entry »