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Michigan School-Based Health Centers Get Boost


The following is a joint news release from the W.K. Kellogg Foundation, Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan Foundation and Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan.

Contact:

mediarelations@bcbsm.com


Detroit, January 22, 2007 - School-based health centers that provide health care to nearly 100,000 Michigan children will become more financially stable thanks to grants from the W.K. Kellogg Foundation, Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan Foundation and Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan.

Over a three-year span, the W.K. Kellogg Foundation will provide $578,075 to the School-Community Health Alliance of Michigan to develop a centralized third-party billing and reporting system. The new system will enable school-based health centers in the state to bill insurers for covered health services provided to students with public or private health care coverage. The Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan Foundation and Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan together will contribute an additional $125,000.

"A successful billing system implemented in Michigan school-based health centers will serve as a national model," said Terri Wright, M.P.H., program director at W.K. Kellogg Foundation. "This partnership with Blue Cross is a golden opportunity to use what we learn in Michigan to stabilize access to school-based health centers across the country."

Diana Jones, vice president of community affairs for Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan, said, "School-based health centers services are invaluable. We are committed to helping them provide access and quality care."

"The long-term goal is to increase revenue to the school-based health centers so they can become financially self-sufficient and continue to improve the health of youth through our public school system," added Ira Strumwasser, Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan Foundation executive director and CEO.

Michigan has over 80 school-based health centers located in areas where children, adolescents and families have limited access to health care. School-based health center nurses and doctors deliver a range of primary, preventive and early intervention services to nearly 100,000 Michigan children of all grade levels in urban, rural and suburban schools. Studies show the centers are an efficient, cost effective way to deliver care, strengthen school performance and reduce barriers to learning.

The new grants will be directed to the purchase, development and implementation of a system for school-based health centers to bill, as appropriate, children with public or private health insurance. Grant funding will also provide billing system training for school-based health center staff. The School-Community Health Alliance of Michigan will coordinate the billing and return the revenues it receives to the health centers. The new system is also expected to track health services provided to students that are not covered by private or public insurance, providing data that can help in the future design of health insurance for children.

While the value of school-based health centers is widely recognized, the centers struggle to secure consistent funding. Limited state funding is available but does not meet the centers’ overall operating needs.

The centers must rely on the availability of grants, local dollars and private contributions to fund services. An integrated billing and reporting system would generate much needed additional funding by enabling the centers to be reimbursed for providing covered services to those students who do have public or private health coverage.

Some centers attempted to bill third party payers beginning in 2001, but most lacked staffing, software and administrative structures to support billing practices.

The Kellogg Foundation previously funded a pilot project which ran from 2003 to 2005 that enabled the School-Community Health Alliance of Michigan to provide centralized billing services for 18 school-based health centers. The results were so promising — over $90,000 in revenue was returned to those centers — that the Kellogg Foundation became interested in funding a second grant.

The Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan Foundation is dedicated to improving the health of Michigan residents by supporting health care research and innovative health programs. The foundation’s grant programs are conducted in Michigan by Michigan-based researchers and nonprofit community health care organizations.

Over the past 25 years, the BCBSM Foundation has contributed approximately $20 million in grants for research and $5 million for community health programs. This funding has resulted ineenhancements to quality, patient safety and access to care for the people of Michigan. The foundation also supports efforts to control the rising costs of health care through research, demonstration and evaluation projects. 

The BCBSM Foundation is the philanthropic affiliate of Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan. The foundation is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization and an independent licensee of the Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association. For more information, visit www.bcbsm.com/foundation.

The W.K. Kellogg Foundation was established in 1930 "to help people help themselves through the practical application of knowledge and resources to improve their quality of life and that of future generations." To achieve the greatest impact, the Foundation targets its grants toward specific areas. These include: health; food systems and rural development; youth and education; and philanthropy and volunteerism. Within these areas, attention is given to exploring learning opportunities in leadership; information and communication technology; capitalizing on diversity; and social and economic community development. Grants are concentrated in the United States, Latin America and the Caribbean, and the southern African countries of Botswan, Lesotho, Malawi, Mozambique, South Africa, Swazilan, and Zimbabwe. Visit www.wkkf.org for more information.

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