An Underpinning of School Inequities: Asthma Absences and Lost Revenue in California Schools.

BACKGROUND: Asthma is epidemic in many locations in the United States. Asthma exacerbations pose serious health and education risks for students through school absences, school dropout, and introduction to the juvenile justice system. Accurate school district-level asthma data, currently in short supply, would enable early interventions that focus on specific geographic areas and racial and ethnic subgroups that have higher asthma prevalence. METHODS: To support the development of better local level data systems, we used two California student databases, as well as state education and financial databases, to develop two models to estimate school absences and to extrapolate their economic impact in lost school revenue. RESULTS: Analysis demonstrated subpopulations that are appropriate for early intervention: African American elementary school boys have 9.4 average absences per year, higher than other primary racial and ethnic groups. Students who miss ≥3 school days due to asthma account for $26 million of lost revenue. CONCLUSIONS: Accurate local level asthma data can identify subpopulations of students for whom environmental and treatment programs can be employed to reduce asthma absences and other related outcomes, and to reduce currently lost school revenues. Such programs also may diminish other asthma-related school inequities.

Creating an environmental justice framework for policy change in childhood asthma: a grassroots to treetops approach.

OBJECTIVES: The Community Action to Fight Asthma Initiative, a network of coalitions and technical assistance providers in California, employed an environmental justice approach to reduce risk factors for asthma in school-aged children. Policy advocacy focused on housing, schools, and outdoor air quality. Technical assistance partners from environmental science, policy advocacy, asthma prevention, and media assisted in advocacy. An evaluation team assessed progress and outcomes. METHODS: A theory of change and corresponding logic model were used to document coalition development and successes. Site visits, surveys, policymaker interviews, and participation in meetings documented the processes and outcomes. Quantitative and qualitative data were analyzed to assess strategies, successes, and challenges. RESULTS: Coalitions, working with community residents and technical assistance experts, successfully advocated for policies to reduce children's exposures to environmental triggers, particularly in low-income communities and communities of color. Policies were implemented at various levels. CONCLUSIONS: Environmental justice approaches to policy advocacy could be an effective strategy to address inequities across communities. Strong technical assistance, close community involvement, and multilevel strategies were all essential to effective policies to reduce environmental inequities.

Universal health insurance for children.

Large and increasing numbers of Americans lack health insurance. While children have recently fared better than adults, millions still lack coverage, and thus experience difficulty obtaining acute and preventive care during a critical period of growth and development. This situation has both short and long-term social and economic implications, including higher health care costs for episodic and end-stage treatment, loss of productivity, and rising-insurance costs to businesses. This paper describes past and current efforts to extend health insurance to children and explores options for achieving universal coverage among children. Specifically, it describes the challenges associated with the financing and delivery of the American health care system, outlines public policy approaches to covering children historically, presents the current status of health insurance for low-income children, and offers options for achieving universal health insurance for children.

Lessons learned in systems change initiatives: benchmarks and indicators.

Measuring progress toward systems change, sustainable efforts that address root causes of an issue by changing policies and practices, is a difficult task for communities, evaluators, and foundations. Tracking and documenting changes in resources, power, policy, sustainable funding, structured relationships and roles, and underlying values require multi-level analyses. Systems change analysts must consider at least four "strata" at once: (1) events and trends, (2) patterns of interaction, (3) context and cultural or social models, and (4) the systems themselves. In this paper we provide a brief overview of systems change; a discussion of collaboratives as one "engine" of social change; a discussion of benchmarks and indicators of collaboratives focused on systems change; and suggestions for further research. The analysis draws upon several analytic frameworks described in the literature. We illustrate these concepts with examples from six systems change initiatives funded by The California Endowment. The need for further research is outlined.

The cost of health insurance administration in California: estimates for insurers, physicians, and hospitals.

Administrative costs account for 25 percent of health care spending, but little is known about the portion attributable to billing and insurance-related (BIR) functions. We estimated BIR for hospital and physician care in California. Data for physician practices came from a mail survey and interviews; for hospitals, from regulatory reporting; and for private insurers, from a consulting company. Private insurers spend 9.9 percent of revenue on administration and 8 percent on BIR. Physician offices spend 27 percent and 14 percent, and hospitals, 21 percent and 7-11 percent, respectively. Overall, BIR represents 20-22 percent of privately insured spending in California acute care settings.