The Blue & You
Foundation grants for 2003 address several health conditions
and issues throughout Arkansas, including prenatal care,
cardiovascular care, asthma, cancer support, childhood
obesity, the nursing shortage, fitness/nutrition and exercise
education, safety, and long-term care research.
The grants to UAMS programs are:
Arkansas
Center for Health Improvement ($150,000) -- to support a
statewide study of cost-effective alternatives to
institutional long-term care. The project will study
utilization of home and community-based and institutional care
among long-term care Medicaid beneficiaries. If the study
results indicate a need for an educational intervention
targeting providers, consumers and/or caregivers, an
intervention will be developed.
The center is a research program jointly operated by the
Department of Psychiatry in the UAMS College of Medicine and
the Arkansas Department of Health.
KIDS
FIRST ($140,900) -- to support the statewide
"Childhood Obesity: Addressing the Arkansas
Epidemic" program, which is designed to improve children’s
health through early education and intervention. Because
obesity treatment is most successful when initiated in early
childhood through an established multi-disciplinary approach,
the program will intervenes with pre-school children through
increased awareness, early detection, and prevention to
provide long-term health improvements throughout life.
UAMS Delta
Area Health Education Center ($70,000) -- to support the
center’s "Your Body, Your Health" program on
hypertension, stroke, teen pregnancy, breast self-exams and
sickle cell anemia. This grant will go to training for
laypersons who will increase community awareness of health
disparities, network with local health agencies and to
increase quality of life in the Delta.
"We have a health care crisis in
Arkansas that must be addressed," said Shoptaw. "The
poor health status of our citizens ranks 46th in the nation
and contributes to rising medical costs. By providing funding
and working together with other organizations, we hope to
establish or expand a number of diverse health care projects
that will benefit all Arkansans over the long term."
The Blue & You Foundation received 64
grant applications requesting more than $5.5 million in
support. The 2003 grant selections were made by the Blue &
You Foundation board members, including: Sybil J. Hampton,
president, Winthrop Rockefeller Foundation, Little Rock; Hayes
C. McClerkin, Of Counsel, Dunn, Nutter and Morgan, Texarkana;
George K. Mitchell, M.D., Little Rock; and Shoptaw.
The foundation is an independent licensee of
the Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association and serves the
state of Arkansas. Founded in 1948, Arkansas Blue Cross and
Blue Shield, also an independent licensee of the Blue Cross
and Blue Shield Association, is the largest health insurer in
Arkansas, serving more than 860,000 Arkansans. One of its
affiliates, USAble Life, is the largest group life insurer in
the state, with more than $9 billion in force. Arkansas Blue
Cross and its USAble family of companies have more than 2,300
employees.
Arkansas Blue Cross and its affiliates
provide health care financing for more than one-third of
Arkansans. If combined, the 42 independent Blue Cross and Blue
Shield Plans constitute the nation's largest financier of
health care, serving more than 80 million -- more than one in
four -- Americans.
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