title: State efforts to measure the health care safety net.
abstract: This article describes the role states could play in a national effort to measure and monitor the public health safety net. The authors developed a data collection framework using information from five states on two components of the safety net: structure and demand. Because states are the primary vehicle for access expansions and programs to care for the poor, the authors suggest that they be the primary coordinating mechanism for data collection on the safety net. Because the necessary mechanisms for more uniform standards or criteria to evaluate state data collection activities and capacity remain undeveloped, they recommend using existing data to begin building state capacity to measure and monitor the safety net.
authors.affiliation: State Health Access Data Assistance Center (SHADAC), Division of Health Services Research and Policy, School of Public Health, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN, USA. blewe001@umn.edu
authors.forename: Lynn A
authors.initials: LA
authors.lastname: Blewett
authors.forename: Timothy J
authors.initials: TJ
authors.lastname: Beebe
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D002017:Budgets; D002648:Child; D003625:Data Collection; D003695:Delivery of Health Care / Q000191:economics; D006279:Health Maintenance Organizations; D006296:Health Services / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D006297:Health Services Accessibility; D006801:Humans; D007348:Insurance, Health; D007407:Interviews as Topic; D008329:Managed Care Programs; D008484:Medicaid; D017057:Medically Uninsured; D011203:Poverty; D011320:Primary Health Care; D011634:Public Health; D012449:Safety; D014481:United States