Developing a management and finance training for future public health leaders.

Public health leaders are increasingly being asked to address adaptive challenges in the context of finite and often limited resources. Budgets and their associated resources create the financial framework within which public health agencies and organizations must operate. Yet, many public health professionals expected to undertake roles requiring this foundational knowledge and skills are not trained in the fundamentals of public finance and are ill-equipped for managing and monitoring funds.

The Public Health Uniform National Data System (PHUND$): A Platform for Monitoring Fiscal Health and Sustainability of the Public Health System.

Context: Leaders of government agencies are responsible for stewardship over taxpayer investments. Stewardship strengthens agency performance that is critical to improving population health. Most industries, including health care, and public enterprises, such as education, have policies for uniform data reporting and financial systems for the application of theoretical analytical techniques to organizations and entire systems.

Taking a Step Forward in Public Health Finance: Establishing Standards for a Uniform Chart of Accounts Crosswalk.

In its 2012 report on the current and future states of public health finance, the Institute of Medicine noted, with concern, the relative lack of capacity for practitioners and researchers alike to make comparisons between health department expenditures across the country. This is due in part to different accounting systems, service portfolios, and state- or agency-specific reporting requirements. The Institute of Medicine called for a uniform chart of accounts, perhaps building on existing efforts such as the Public Health Uniform National Data Systems (PHUND$).

Anatomy of a public health agency turnaround: the case of the general health district in Mahoning County.

A turnaround describes an organization's ability to recover from successive periods of decline. Current and projected declines in US economic conditions continue to place local public health departments at risk of fiscal exigency. This examination focused on turnaround methodologies used by a local public health department to reverse successive periods of operational and financial declines.

The effects on population health status of using dedicated property taxes to fund local public health agencies.

Background: In the United States, a dedicated property tax describes the legal authority given to a local jurisdiction to levy and collect a tax for a specific purpose. We investigated for an association of locally dedicated property taxes to fund local public health agencies and improved health status in the eight states designated as the Mississippi Delta Region.

Methods: We analyzed the difference in health outcomes of counties with and without a dedicated public health tax after adjusting for a set of control variables using regression models for county level data from 720 counties of the Mississippi Delta Region.

Creating a framework for getting quality into the public health system.

The US health care system has undertaken concerted efforts to improve the quality of care that Americans receive, using well-documented strategies and new incentives found in the Affordable Care Act of 2010. Applying quality concepts to public health has lagged these efforts, however. This article describes two reports from the Department of Health and Human Services: Consensus Statement on Quality in the Public Health System and Priority Areas for Improvement of Quality in Public Health.

Emergency response and public health in Hurricane Katrina: what does it mean to be a public health emergency responder?

Since 9/11, federal funds directed toward public health departments for training in disaster preparedness have dramatically increased, resulting in changing expectations of public health workers' roles in emergency response. This article explores the public health emergency responder role through data collected as part of an oral history conducted with the 3 health departments that responded to Hurricane Katrina in Mississippi and Louisiana. The data reveals a significant change in public health emergency response capacity as a result of federal funding.

Decision science: a scientific approach to enhance public health budgeting.

The allocation of resources for public health programming is a complicated and daunting responsibility. Financial decision-making processes within public health agencies are especially difficult when not supported with techniques for prioritizing and ranking alternatives. This article presents a case study of a decision analysis software model that was applied to the process of identifying funding priorities for public health services in the Spokane Regional Health District.

Public health financial management needs: report of a national survey.

Background: The work reported here builds on the identification of public health financial management practice competencies by a national expert panel. The next logical step was to provide a validity check for the competencies and identify priority areas for educational programming.

Methods: We developed a survey for local public health finance officers based on the public health finance competencies and field tested it with a convenience sample of officials.

Public health financial management competencies.

The absence of appropriate financial management competencies has impeded progress in advancing the field of public health finance. It also inhibits the ability to professionalize this sector of the workforce. Financial managers should play a critical role by providing information relevant to decision making.

Evaluating the ecological association of casino industry economic development on community health status: a natural experiment in the Mississippi delta region.

Objectives of this study were to examine for associations of casino industry economic development on improving community health status and funding for public health services in two counties in the Mississippi Delta Region of the United States. An ecological approach was used to evaluate whether two counties with casino gaming had improved health status and public health funding in comparison with two noncasino counties in the same region with similar social, racial, and ethic backgrounds. Variables readily available from state health department records were used to develop a logic model for guiding analytical work.

Impact of increasing Medicaid dental reimbursement and implementing school sealant programs on sealant prevalence.

Unlabelled: We examined the impact of two financing strategies--increasing Medicaid dental reimbursements and providing school sealant programs--on dental sealant? prevalence (number of children with at least one sealant) among 7- to 9-year-olds in Alabama and Mississippi counties from 1999 to 2003.

Methods: We used Medicaid claims data in a linear regression model. We regressed number of children sealed per county onto eligible children, median family income, dentist-to-population ratio, and indicator variables for reimbursement increase, presence of community health center (CHC) or school sealant program, and interaction between reimbursement increase and presence of school program or CHC.

State public health agency expenditures: categorizing and comparing to performance levels.

For optimal effectiveness, assessments of public health agency and system performance should include analysis to measure the amount of financial resources consumed to achieve performance levels. This pilot study was conducted to test a methodology in a state health department for comparing financial resources consumed to performance scores in each of the 10 Essential Public Health Services categories. An additional feature was to quantify the percentage of total agency expenditures utilized for administrative functions as well.

Creating financial transparency in public health: examining best practices of system partners.

Financial transparency is based on concepts for valid, standardized information that is readily accessible and routinely disseminated to stakeholders. While Congress and others continuously ask for an accounting of public health investments, transparency remains an ignored concept. The objective of this study was to examine financial transparency practices in other industries considered as part of the public health system.