For Immediate Release
December 14, 2005

BCBSNC Contact:
Mark Stinneford, (919) 765-3745

Duke University Center for Health Policy Contacts:
Chris Conover, (919) 613-9369
Geelea Seaford, (919) 613-7318

N.C. Institute of Medicine Contact
Pam Silberman, (919) 401-6599

Blue Cross and Blue Shield of North Carolina Foundation, Duke University Center for Health Policy Launch Effort to Expand Community Options for the Uninsured

Chapel Hill, NC – The Blue Cross and Blue Shield of North Carolina Foundation (BCBSNC Foundation) announced that it will fund a four-year initiative by the Duke University Center for Health Policy to help state and local government officials, health care professionals and other leaders assess and expand community programs to help the uninsured.

A scholars program, the Jim Bernstein Health Policy Scholars, will be created as part of the project and will tap three students per year to work on health policy issues related to access to the health care system. Their work will include implementing recommendations to help strengthen the medical safety net in local communities, enhancing Internet-based resources for local policymakers and conducting research on a variety of issues related to health care access.

The scholars program is named for the late Jim Bernstein, a national leader in rural access to health care who served most recently as an assistant secretary of health in the N.C. Department of Health and Human Services and worked for nearly three decades as the first head of the Office of Rural Health.

"Solving the problem of the uninsured is a long–term challenge that will take the best efforts of government, business, medicine and the nonprofit community," said Kathy Higgins, president of the BCBSNC Foundation. "However, there is an urgent need now to help state and local leaders get the most out of existing resources to serve people in need of care. That’s what Jim Bernstein’s life was all about, and this innovative scholars program will continue that good work."

"We are excited about the opportunity to continue to meet Jim Bernstein’s goal of seeing that every North Carolinian has access to adequate health care," said Chris Conover, director of the health policy certificate program and a faculty member in the Center for Health Policy at the Terry Sanford Institute of Public Policy at Duke. "This initiative with the BCBSNC Foundation and the N.C. Institute of Medicine will provide an important health policy portal to improve the quality of both state and local health policy decisions in North Carolina."

Many of the 1.3 million uninsured people in this state rely on health care safety net providers for routine primary care. Yet, a recent study by the N.C. Institute of Medicine (NC IOM) suggests that only about one–fourth of the uninsured receive primary care through these organizations. Others report going without necessary care. "We know that the availability of safety net resources varies widely across the state," noted Pam Silberman, president and CEO of the N.C. Institute of Medicine. "That is why it is so important to work to expand and strengthen these safety net organizations. The Jim Bernstein Health Policy Scholars will help further this effort."

The work of the scholars will help to implement recommendations of the Safety Net Advisory Council of the NC IOM. These projects include determining the medical safety net capacity at the local level, developing a planning package for communities seeking to expand their ability to serve the uninsured, and compiling information and lessons learned from effective local collaborations on medical safety net issues.

As part of the project's goal of assisting policymakers and communities in providing care for the uninsured, the scholars will work to upgrade existing Web resources now provided through the Center for Health Policy and NC IOM to provide information about effective practices and county-level health status information. The new site, the N.C. Health Policy Gateway, will also provide a directory of health policy experts in the state. The Gateway and online directory are aimed at contributing to evidence-based health policy decisions more generally, with particular emphasis on issues related to the uninsured and access to care.

The program will include the appointment of three scholars per year for the next three years. They will include two juniors from Duke University and a master's degree candidate from UNC-Chapel Hill's School of Public Health, all of whom will be competitively selected based on academic merit and a demonstrated interest and knowledge in health policy issues.

The first Jim Bernstein Health Policy Scholars have been appointed. They are:

• Vijay Brihmadesam, from Jackson, Mississippi, is a joint public policy and biomedical engineering major with a minor in chemistry at Duke. He has completed field work on poverty issues in North Carolina. He will do a summer internship with the NC IOM and plans to write a senior honors thesis on issues related to access to care for undocumented immigrants in North Carolina.
• Theresa Poulos, from Wilmette, Illinois, is a joint major in economics and art history at Duke and is pursuing the health policy certificate. She will do her summer internship in the Office of Research, Demonstrations and Rural Health Development and plans to write a senior honors thesis in economics on a topic related to access to care for North Carolina’s uninsured.
• April Clark, from New Haven, Connecticut, is a Healthcare Administration master’s degree candidate at UNC–Chapel Hill with a concentration in quality management. She has researched infant care among African–Americans in North Carolina and will complete a hospital administrative internship this summer. She hopes to work in a safety net organization that provides care to underserved populations after finishing her master’s degree.

The BCBSNC Foundation is supporting the scholars program with a $303,000 grant over the four years of the program. The Terry Sanford Institute of Public Policy at Duke is providing an additional $6,000 for scholars’ support, and Duke University will also provide in–kind contributions to this program through the Center for Health Policy.