News

The Center for Healthcare Research & Transformation (CHRT) today released a report tracking trends in the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA) funding. From March 2010 when the ACA became law through the most recent fiscal year ending in September 2013, nearly $15.1 billion in grants was awarded in the United States and District of Columbia. Michigan received $305.4 million in awards, ranking 16th in the U.S. behind the lower population states of Colorado, Kentucky, and Oregon, states that established their own health insurance exchanges.

The issue brief, “Affordable Care Act Funding: An Analysis of Grant Programs under Health Care Reform — FY2010–FY2013,” examines grant programs funded by the ACA, shows how funds have been distributed to states and local organizations, and notes the effects of budget sequestration on future ACA funding.

“This brief is intended to help illuminate the breadth of the ACA. While significant funding is included in the ACA for insurance coverage expansion, there is also considerable funding to increase health care access, support work force development and improve programs for early childhood and public health,” said Marianne Udow-Phillips, director of CHRT.

Community health center expansion—including capital projects—and market reform programs such as state-based health exchanges received the majority of funding nationally.

“Because Michigan opted not to do a state-based insurance exchange, the trend was different than the national trend: total funding for community health centers in Michigan was significantly higher in both 2012 and 2013 than the national rate, while funding for market reform programs was a distant second,” said Udow-Phillips.

Highlights of the brief include:

• Nationally, health centers received $4.9 billion from FY2010 – FY2013. In Michigan, funding for health centers was the largest category of funding, with $124.3 million (40.7 percent), significantly higher than the national rate of 32.4 percent.
• Nationally, market reform programs comprised approximately 29.2 percent of total funding. In Michigan, market reform programs comprised 14.6 percent ($44.5 million) of total ACA funding due largely to the state’s choice to forgo operating its own state health insurance exchange.
• The State of Michigan received the most funding in the state, with $114.8 million from FY2010 – FY2013, for programs such as early childhood home visitation, public health infrastructure, and long-term care demonstration projects.
• The University of Michigan, the state’s second largest recipient, received $13.8 million.

“ACA grant funding is changing the Michigan’s health care landscape at the community level,” explained Udow-Phillips, citing several examples of ACA-funded projects across Michigan including:

• Michigan’s Department of Community Health received $10 million in FY2013 to build the state’s home visiting program to improve child and maternal health.
• The Sault Ste. Marie Tribe of Chippewa Indians, with service area in seven counties in the eastern Upper Peninsula, received funding to reduce tobacco use and exposure to secondhand smoke and to increase physical activity and healthy eating in communities, tribal worksites, early childhood programs and local schools. Early results include: three casino restaurants, have gone smoke-free and all 5 tribal health center campuses are now tobacco-free. Also two communities and the Tribe have developed non-motorized transportation plans to increase walking and biking in the eastern Upper Peninsula.
• Cherry Street Health Services, a federally qualified health care center in west Michigan, made facility improvements, added two new health center sites, increased access to medical, dental and mental health services, and grew health coverage enrollment services for Medicaid.
• Altarum Institute used an ACA-funded Innovation Grant to work with United Physicians in Oakland County to reduce unnecessary CT and MRI-imaging, thereby reducing patient radiation exposure, misdiagnosis and unnecessary treatment. Altarum plans to introduce a phone app for physicians.

“This is just a sample of the work being done in Michigan as a result of the ACA,” said Udow-Phillips.

For a comparison of ACA funding levels, please read “Affordable Care Act Funding: An Analysis of Grant Programs under Health Care Reform — FY2010–FY2013”, available at chrt.test.