The Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts Foundation hosted two Community Grant Forums to share information on the  "Closing the Gap on Health Care Disparities" grant program. More than 200 people attended the presentations held in Marlborough (April 14) and Boston (April 18). Letters of Inquiry are due May 22, 2008.

The Foundation seeks to contract with a health care research consulting firm to produce a report that will lay the groundwork for a major new initiative to improve access to quality care for low to moderate income Massachusetts residents through access determinants other than insurance.

The Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts Foundation has created a summer internship program for an undergraduate or graduate student interested in learning about and working on current issues in health policy. He or she will work on individual assignments to carry out the Foundation's policy goals of moving the Commonwealth towards equal access to quality health care for all residents through credible, independent research, grants for strategic policy and research, and dissemination of knowledge and fostering collaborations through convening broad stakeholders.

In response to the Massachusetts Department of Revenue’s request for comments, the Foundation provided the following comments on the proposed penalty schedule intended to promote compliance with the individual mandate. 

The Foundation is pleased to announce that ten medical journalists from across New England have been named to the 2008 class of the Health Coverage Fellowship.  The fellowship, the first of its kind in the country, is designed to help the New England media cover critical health care issues.

According to a recent survey by Jon Gabel, of the National Opinion Research Center at the University of Chicago, Massachusetts businesses express support for health reform objectives.   This project was sponsored by the Robert Wood Johnson and the Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts Foundations and results were published in Health Affairs Web Exclusive. Please click here to review a PDF file of the chartbook links for this survey.

Getting Ready for Reform, a new report by the Urban Institute, provides baseline information for documenting changes in coverage and health care experiences as health reform implementation began. A summary and the full report are now available.