UHF analyzes public policy to inform decision-makers, finds common ground among diverse stakeholders, and develops and supports innovative programs that improve the quality, accessibility, affordability, and experience of patient care.
We have been providing analysis, convening, and thought leadership on key health policy issues in New York for decades. Some focus on particular payment or delivery systems, and some focus on particular groups of New Yorkers needing access to care or on particular groups of health care providers. All of these efforts support our core focus areas: supporting comprehensive health insurance coverage and access to services; promoting improvements in the quality and efficiency of health care delivery; and fostering collaborations between the health care delivery system and communities.
Children's Health Initiative
The Children’s Health Initiative works to build a strengthened primary care system for children that partners with families to promote optimal physical health, social and emotional well-being, and cognitive growth in the first five years of life. It pursues this goal by partnering with child health providers to adopt early childhood development innovations; identifying opportunities for New York’s Medicaid and Child Health Plus Programs to promote children's health and healthy development; and engaging parents of young children and early childhood educators in discussions to better inform public policy and design primary care programs.
Early Childhood Literacy
The Pediatric Steps to Literacy, One Book at a Time project, funded by the Mother Cabrini Health Foundation with additional support from Howard P. Milstein, aims to ensure that children in at-risk communities develop proficient literacy skills and become lifelong learners poised for success.
Family Caregiving
The Family Caregiving initiative works to advance public and professional understanding of the crucial role family caregivers play in the health care system through innovative research and analysis, broad dissemination of findings, and collaboration with health care and social service providers to stimulate systemic change. It stimulates the development of sound policies and programs that support family caregivers’ needs for information, education, training, and inclusion in the patient’s health care team.
Health Insurance Project
The Health Insurance Project identifies ways to expand and strengthen public and private health insurance by helping to fashion solutions to emerging policy, regulatory, and implementation challenges that stand between New Yorkers and affordable, quality health coverage. This initiative analyzes demographic data on coverage, health plan enrollment and financial results, and the insurance statutes and regulations unique to New York State, in order to inform the health care policy discussion and identify emerging issues and opportunities.
Innovation Strategies
The Innovation Strategies initiative seeks to improve the performance of New York’s health care system by identifying, evaluating, and supporting the adoption of promising innovations in how health care services are organized, delivered, and financed, how they are engaging patients and families, and how they are using health information technology to guide and assess these new developments. The initiative focuses on advanced primary care, collaborative care, and accountable care.
Medicaid Institute
The Medicaid Institute provides information and analyses explaining New York’s Medicaid program, in order to help all stakeholders build a more effective health care system for low-income New Yorkers.
Quality Institute
The Quality Institute at United Hospital Fund, in partnership with key stakeholders, develops and promotes innovative strategies to strengthen and spread best practices across the spectrum of health care settings. It addresses tough questions about how to define and measure quality, seeks to engage patients in improving services, and is developing the next generation of health care quality improvement leaders.