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The Community Access Program (CAP) grants will help grantees in 22 states build integrated health care systems among local partner organizations, all of which are committed to expanding health services to uninsured individuals.

"This grant program's goal is to assure that more uninsured people receive needed care, that the care received is of higher quality, and that the uninsured are served by providers who participate in accountable health systems," said Secretary Shalala.

The integrated systems will link all levels of care, including primary health care, mental health services, substance abuse counseling, and dental and pharmacy assistance. Grant amounts vary in size, based on the scope of the project and the size of the service area.

Interest in the competitive CAP grants was strong. The Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA), an HHS agency, received more than 2,300 requests for application kits and 207 applications for the 23 available grants. Funding requests came in from 44 states, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico.

"The huge number of applications reflects the importance of the administration's efforts in trying to bring access to health care to people who need it in communities across the country," said Secretary Shalala. "This funding is the first installment for what is intended to be a $1 billion initiative over five years and that will ultimately reach approximately 100 communities."

CAP grant recipients will use the funds to create and expand collaboration among local partners through such strategies as management information systems, referral networks, care coordination and enrollment processes. This year's grants will bolster efforts at sites that have already begun organizing community-based coalitions to coordinate services to the uninsured.

"The grantees have developed strategies that rely on local resources to build and strengthen integrated health care delivery systems," said HRSA Administrator Claude Earl Fox, M.D., M.P.H. "These are federal grants, but the design of each grantee's health care network and its implementation are locally driven."

All of the grant applications targeted access to health care to uninsured persons. Because racial and ethnic minorities in most communities are more likely than non-minorities to be uninsured, CAP grants support the federal government's goal - as stated in the Healthy People 2010 document released by the Secretary last January -- to eliminate disparities in health status among all groups by 2010.

President Clinton's budget request for fiscal year 2001 calls for $125 million for CAP, five times the program's fiscal year 2000 operating budget. If approved, some of that money would be used to fund many of the more than 50 additional applications that were approved in the current grant cycle but not funded due to budget limitations. Fiscal year 2001 money would also be used to fund additional applicants who are approved in a new competition.

For more information on the Community Access Program, call 301-443-0536 or go to the program office Web site at: www.hrsa.gov/cap. Below is the list of CAP grantees.

Grantee	Location	Amount
Southeast Alaska Regional Health Consortium	Sitka, Alaska	$ 893,191
El Rio Santa Cruz Neighborhood Health Center Inc.	Tucson, Ariz.	740,025
Los Angeles County Department of Health Services	Los Angeles, Calif.	1,925,089
Delaware Health Care Commission	Wilmington, Del.	895,950
Leon County	Tallahassee, Fla.	661,088
Access Community Health Network	Chicago, Ill.	985,545
Community Health Council, Inc.	Manhattan, Kan.	716,000
University of Kentucky Research Foundation	Lexington, Ky.	798,387
Louisiana Public Health Institute	New Orleans, La.	899,357
Community Foundation of Cape Cod	Yarmouthport, Mass.	861,671
St. Johns Health Systems	Detroit, Mich.	900,000
Hennepin County Medical Center	Minneapolis, Minn.	899,714
Aaron E. Henry Community Health Center	Clarksdale, Miss.	967,459
Sangre de Cristo Community Health Partnership	El Rito, N.M.	1,224,000
New York City Health and Hospitals	New York, N.Y.	1,366,610
North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services	Raleigh, N.C.	897,465
Cincinnati Health Network, Inc.	Cincinnati, Ohio	899,590
CareOregon	Portland, Ore.	925,502
Shelby County Health Care Corporation	Memphis, Tenn.	885,992
Daughters of Charity Health Services of Austin	Austin, Texas	900,000
El Paso County Hospital	El Paso, Texas	976,749
Inova Health Care Services	Falls Church, Va	901,570
County of Milwaukee	Milwaukee, Wis.	900,000
	TOTAL:	$ 22,020,954

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