Ohio Family Health Survey: Policy and program assistance in Ohio

The 2010 Ohio Family Health Survey Series (OFHS) are comprised of complex-designed stratified random surveys that target issues relating to health system utilization, types of health insurance coverage, health care access, Medicaid participation, health behaviors, micro and macro social determinants of health, and health demographics at the state, regional, and county levels. The OFHS is used as a primary reference for health care policy, governmental health programming, and community advocacy in Ohio. These data sets were used in Ohio's health care reform and health-associated biennium budget processes, regional rebalancing of access to care for economically stressed communities, and local public health program planning and assessment. In this presentation, we will describe the survey's use in Ohio's health care reform predictions concerning expansion of health coverage through Medicaid, a health exchange, increased employer-sponsored health insurance, and high-risk pool assignment. We will also describe the countywide reform of the access to care structure, including child Medicaid outreach and county-specific wrap-around services in Mahoning, Greene and Franklin counties (Youngstown, Xenia and Columbus). How to distribute data/information to various levels of government will be addressed, with a concentration on unifying the local to state-level messages will be emphasized.