The University of Georgia College of Public Health has been awarded funding from the Healthcare Georgia Foundation to design and implement a plan to formally evaluate the impact of the General Grant-ln-Aid funding changes on the county-level public health infrastructure.

The General Grant-ln-Aid funding is the core source of funding the Georgia the Department of Public Health (DPH) uses to allocate funding to each of Georgia’s 159 counties for the express purpose of strengthening the local public health infrastructure by underwriting the basic functions of public health. Beginning in July 2011, the GGIA formula used to distribute funds from the DPH to the counties will be modified for the first time since 1970.

This short-term evaluation of this new policy model is being conducted with full support from the Georgia DPH and will be used to inform policy makers and public health leaders at the local and state level about the impact of the new GGIA formula and to inform the consideration of future formula changes.

This research is being conducted by the College’s Department of Health Policy and Management (HPAM). This department is home to a talented group of inter-disciplinary researchers in health policy, public policy, psychology, sociology and health economics. HPAM’s mission is to advance the health of the public by developing leadership and management expertise and promoting an evidence-based approach to policy making and management in health and medicine.

Posted September 20, 2011.