Missouri Health Foundation to Issue $20M in Grants Over Next Year

The Missouri Foundation for Health announced plans on May 23 to give away at least $20 million in grants over the next year to help improve health care in the state, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reports. The organization, the state's largest health care foundation for the poor, was created after the dissolution of Blue Cross Blue Shield of Missouri in 2000. It aims to fill gaps in the areas once served by the insurer and to identify and fund "innovative health care programs in the region." The group said that beginning June 1, it will take applications for grants in three areas: preventing cardiovascular disease and diabetes; supporting proven programs "needing more money to serve more people"; and paying expenses for health care organizations "hard hit by the weakened economy." The grants will help not-for-profit organizations that serve the state's poor, uninsured and underserved residents. The foundation hopes to give out $40 million by the start of 2004 (Carroll, St. Louis Post-Dispatch, 5/24).