 | The 131st Annual Meeting (November 15-19, 2003) of APHA |
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| The 131st Annual Meeting (November 15-19, 2003) of APHA |
Peggy Honore, MHA, Director, Public Health Finance Program, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 4770 Buford Hwy, Mail Stop K-39, Atlanta, GA 30341, 770-488-8053, pmh4@cdc.gov and Walter J. Jones, PhD, Department of Health Administration and Policy, Medical University of South Carolina, 171 Ashley Avenue, Charleston, SC 29425.
Improvements in the quality of financial analysis are vitally important for building public health system capacity and sustainability. Chapter 23 of Healthy People 2010 focuses on strategies for strengthening the public health infrastructure. However, major deficiencies limiting effective public health financial analysis are: 1) the lack of useful public health financial databases, and 2) inconsistent methods for categorizing public health agency expenditure data. Currently there are no federal or state policies that mandate the specific ways in which public health financial data are reported and categorized. However, Goal #23-16 of Healthy People 2010 encourages public health agencies to collaborate in building a national financial database by categorizing their financial data by the 10 Essential Public Health Services.
Over the past decade, several studies have been undertaken to recommend methodologies for public health financial data categorization, including Statewide Public Health Expenditures: A Pilot Study in Maryland (2000). A pilot project is currently underway at another state’s health department to categorize all expenditure data using the methodology recommended in the Maryland study. A major difference between this effort and Maryland’s is the innovative use of computer accounting software to categorize data at the point of system entry. In contrast, previous statewide pilot projects have used retrospective categorization of expenditure data. This study outlines the methodologies used in this state’s public health financial data categorization project. It also explains the significance of current findings for national policy development in public health finance, along with major technical, managerial and political obstacles that face reformers.
Learning Objectives:
Keywords: Fiscal Policy, Public Health Infrastructure
Presenting author's disclosure statement:
I do not have any significant financial interest/arrangement or affiliation with any organization/institution whose products or services are being discussed in this session.