California Endowment, California HealthCare Foundation To Award Grants for Care of Chronically Ill

The California Endowment and the California HealthCare Foundation yesterday announced the launch of a five-year, $10 million program to make "cost-effective, comprehensive and coordinated" health care available to uninsured state residents with chronic illnesses. The Frequent Users of Health Services Initiative will provide one-year, $100,000 planning grants and three-year, $900,000 implementation grants to coalitions whose members include public and private hospitals and health clinics, county agencies and community organizations that provide care to high-risk residents. The foundations will award the first round of grants in April. Grant recipients will use the awards to develop "better ways to provide care" to uninsured state residents with chronic illnesses, who often must use emergency rooms and hospitals for medical problems that they could have avoided with preventive care. "This is an opportunity to help patients that are among the most challenging to serve. It is difficult to manage their care and coordinate services because they receive care from a number of providers in a number of different settings," CHCF President and CEO Mark Smith said (California Endowment/CHCF release, 10/14).