Chartered Health Plan, Inc.

As a result of the recent settlement of tobacco litigation, the District of Columbia has more than $200 million available to invest in the health of the city’s residents. A Health Care Task Force, convened in 2006 by then-Mayor Anthony Williams, considered alternative ways to invest the available funds. The Task Force crafted several options that included investment in additional or improved hospital capacity, ambulatory care, and health care system improvement, but agreed that research was needed before final investment decisions could be made. The District contracted with the RAND Corporation to perform a study of health and the health care delivery system in the District. The goals of RAND’s evaluation are to:

1. Conduct a comprehensive health needs assessment for Washington DC;
2. Assess the quality and accessibility of the District’s health care delivery system for individuals with urgent or emergent medical needs; and
3. Use information from those assessments to identify and assess various policy options for improving the health care delivery system.

This report summarizes the findings related to the first two goals. The George Washington University, through a subcontract with RAND, performed research related to goal (2). A final report, to be issued in Spring 2008, will include findings relevant to goal (3).

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