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October 31, 2007
Los Angeles, CA – Continuing its commitment to identify and address the health needs of California’s largest county, L.A. Care Health Plan recently awarded nearly $290,000 to the UCLA Center for Health Policy Research to expand its planned survey of Los Angeles County residents in the 2007 California Health Interview Survey (CHIS). The additional surveys, called an oversample, made possible by this funding will provide a richer understanding of how a variety of health issues – including health insurance coverage – impact Los Angeles County residents.
This grant, together with other funding, will bolster the value of this leading health resource that collects essential information from thousands of California households on a wide variety of health topics, such as access to medical care, health insurance, chronic illnesses, children’s health, health-related behaviors, housing and demographics. Policymakers, health advocates, providers, researchers and many others look to CHIS as the most reliable source of ongoing data on the health status of California adults, adolescents and children.
“The California Health Interview Survey is an important resource that is used to assess community health locally, regionally and statewide,” said Elaine Batchlor, M.D., chief medical officer of L.A. Care Health Plan.
The larger survey sample made possible by this funding from L.A. Care Health Plan will help paint a much more detailed picture of the county in terms of health insurance coverage, disease burden, chronic health conditions, health behaviors and health care access. It will also greatly improve the ability of policy makers, health care providers, researchers and others to track health issues for small geographic areas within the county.
With this new grant, L.A. Care Health Plan has contributed nearly $500,000 to CHIS.
L.A. Care Health Plan is a community-accountable health plan serving Los Angeles County’s low-income residents through a variety of programs, including Medi-Cal, Healthy Families, and L.A. Care’s Healthy Kids. With nearly 800,000 members, L.A. Care is the nation’s largest public health plan. For more information, please visit the L.A. Care Health Plan website.
“We are grateful for L.A. Care Health Plan’s partnership, which recognizes the California Health Interview Survey as a vital resource for those working to improve the health of Los Angeles County residents,” said E. Richard Brown, Ph.D., director of the UCLA Center for Health Policy Research and professor at the UCLA School of Public Health.
Initial data and results from the 2007 California Health Interview Survey will be available in late 2008. Other supporters of the 2007 California Health Interview Survey include the California Department of Health Care Services, the California Department of Public Health, the National Cancer Institute, The California Endowment, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, the Blue Shield of California Foundation, First 5 California and others.
Conducted every two years, CHIS is a collaborative effort of the UCLA Center for Health Policy Research, the California Department of Health Care Services, the California Department of Public Health and the Public Health Institute. For further information, go to the California Health Interview Survey website.
The UCLA Center for Health Policy Research was established in 1994 and is one of the nation’s leading health policy research centers. It is also the premier source of key health policy information for California. The Center is based in the UCLA School of Public Health and is affiliated with the UCLA School of Public Affairs.
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