A solution to the nation’s skyrocketing health care cost just might be found at a grocery store near you. A study appearing in the recent issue of the American Journal of Managed Care (1) found that medical care initiated at retail clinics is 30-40% less expensive than similar care provided at a physician’s office and 80% less expensive than care provided in an emergency room. Large numbers of consumers are beginning to take advantage of the convenience of having health care services available where they do their grocery shopping. According to the study, retail clinic use has increased 10-fold from 2007 to 2009. The study results showed that proximity to a retail clinic was the strongest predictor of use. In other words, when it comes to health care, place matters.

As retail clinics continue to grow in popularity, good data is needed in order to make good decisions about strategically locating new retail-based health clinics. This is where PolicyMap can help. On PolicyMap you can not only see the locations of all retail clinics, but also the locations of nurse practitioner-led clinics, federally qualified community health centers, community health centers and hospitals. Taken together these points represent the health care safety net which the Institute of Medicine defines as, “Those providers that organize and deliver a significant level of health care and other related services to uninsured, Medicaid, and other vulnerable patients.” (2) PolicyMap also has the locations of supermarkets across the United States. Combining safety net locations, supermarket locations and demographic information, PolicyMap provides the essential elements for thinking strategically (and spatially) about improving health care access and reducing health care costs across the United States.

For additional information on the rise of retail-based health care centers, we suggest you read a another great study from RAND called “Policy Implications of the use of Retail Clinics” or visit the Convenient Care Association

(1) Ashwood, J.S., Reid, R.O., Setodji, C.M., Weber, E., Gaynor, M., & Mehrotra, A. (2011). Trends in retail clinic use among the commercially insured. The American Journal of Managed Care, 17, e443-e448.
(2) Institute of Medicine. 2000. America’s Health Care Safety Net: Intact but Endangered. Washington, DC: National Academy Press, p.3-4

TRANSCRIPT
Listen to the full audio broadcast of this story here

Kai Ryssdal: The recession is, officially, over. A lot of experts and some economic indicators agree on that. But the experts and the indicators don’t know what they’re talking about.

In California’s Inland Empire, that’s definitely true. The Inland Empire’s out in in the desert east of L.A. with 4.3 million people living there, nearly double the population of Nevada. In the decades before the recession, it was the place families went to to pursue the American Dream. There were cheap suburban houses with two-car garages and good jobs in construction and warehousing and trucking. There were so many jobs, in fact, that the unemployment rate fell below 5 percent. Now, it’s triple that in many towns, and the dream has turned into something of a nightmare.

Today, in the first of a two-part series, Marketplace’s Mitchell Hartman takes a trip to to see what the future might hold.

Click Here to read the complete transcript by Mitchell Hartman on Marketplace published 11/21/2011.

Map: Track your state’s unemployment rate through the years

Map: Track your metro area’s unemployment rate through the years

The Community Impact Award is bestowed each year “to dedicated compliance professionals and their institutions,” to honor “outstanding and innovative efforts in furtherance of the goals of the Community Reinvestment Act.” The Award also is intended to encourage innovative community lending and to provide the financial industry with examples of superb programs that have made a large impact on underserved communities.

Click Here to read the full press release on MarketWatch published on 11/17/2011.

www.cdc.gov/obesity/downloads/HFRassessment.pdf

To request a more detailed analysis of at-risk housing in your region or to learn more about CHPC’s Preservation Clearinghouse, please contact Nadia Shihab, Housing Preservation Specialist, at (415) 433-6804 ext. 316, or nshihab@chpc.net.

To get started with the CHPC Mapping Tool, click here

PolicyMap, a popular Web-based data and mapping application with more than 1,000 government users, has added new features intended to streamline data uploading and interpret it with analytics.

A data uploader, an application programming interface (API), a widget embedding function and an analytics tool were recently added to PolicyMap, which offers more than 10,000 indicators such as demographics, education, crime, health, real estate, mortgage finance, vacancy, transit and school performance. The data is gleaned from public and private sources.

Governments use the website for to generate maps, identify trends, compare communities and other analytical functions.

“It is our goal over the next six to eight months to really make PolicyMap a platform for loading and sharing data, whether it’s sharing it with the public or sharing it with others in your agency,” said Maggie McCullough, PolicyMap’s director.

With the data uploader — a cloud-based application —government agencies and other users can input their own information such as addresses into PolicyMap.

Before launching the data uploader, agencies had to submit spreadsheets and wait for PolicyMap to upload the information to the site, McCullough said. With the new tool, agencies no longer have to wait to have their information uploaded.

Annie Clark, policy director of the Louisiana Housing Finance Agency, said the agency uploads data on home delinquencies that have occurred in the state, which is then mapped on the application. The agency then uses the information when requesting money from the federal government.

“We use the information to help us build our case when we are requesting money,” Clark said. “And we also use the data to help make decisions when people are requesting dollars from us.”

McCullough said some of the data on the site is public information, which anyone can access. Agencies have the option of using the site for free, but features are limited. Private data can only be accessed through a subscription — via a standard or premium pricing model

Public- and private-sector users can subscribe to the site for access to the new tools by choosing the new premium subscription option, McCullough said. By selecting this subscription, up to five users have access to the new tools minus the data API for a cost of $5,000 a year.

The price of accessing the data API tool depends on the amount of traffic coming to a government’s website, whether the site is open to the public and the amount of data to be licensed, McCullough said. The data loader is also available to standard subscribers for $2,000 a year.

McCullough said PolicyMap also purchases private data such as school performance and home sale data from third-party vendors, but any public data is made available for free on the site. The next set of expansions that users will see over the next few months is more data-uploading capacity.

Read the original article by Sarah Rich on Government Technology here

The Brookings Institute and The Reinvestment Fund, a community reinvestment group, released a video detailing supermarket access in 10 metro areas. The video, “Getting to Market,” is also accompanied by TRF’s PolicyMap widget, which enables users to find areas where food access is a problem and generate reports about those areas.

The analysis considers factors beyond distance in the attempt to identify “food desserts, ” including factors like a community’s population density and car ownership within a community. Across the 10 metro areas, which range in size from Jackson, Miss. to Los Angeles, about 5 percent of the total population live in areas underserved by supermarkets.

The report, released October 2010, urges economic developers, neighborhood organizations and retailers to pinpoint areas of low food access as a first step toward reducing market obstacles to food options that are better and less expensive for residents of vulnerable communities.

See the report

Click here to read this article on the Journalism Center on Children & Families website on November 16th, 2010.

NEW YORK, Sep 29, 2010 (BUSINESS WIRE) — –LIIF, Goldman Sachs, TRF, and The Food Trust Will Provide Capital Grants and Loans to Eligible Retail Food Providers Committed to Expanding the Healthy Food Offerings in Underserved Neighborhoods

Governor David A. Paterson today announced the availability of $30 million for the New York Healthy Food & Healthy Communities (HFHC) Fund to finance the building of food markets in underserved communities. Administered by Empire State Development (ESD), the fund includes a $20 million commitment from The Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. and a $10 million commitment from ESD.

“Today’s announcement is a major step forward in ensuring the health and well-being of all New Yorkers,” Governor Paterson said. “As part of the State’s broader Healthy Food/Healthy Communities Initiative, the New York Healthy Food & Healthy Communities Fund provides financing for infrastructure costs and credit needs not typically filled by conventional financial institutions. Through this unique model, the fund will increase the supply of affordable, fresh food in underserved areas, improve the diets and health outcomes of the State’s residents, and spur economic development in these neighborhoods.”

In addition to the commitments from The Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. and ESD, the New York State Health Foundation (NYSHealth) is providing an additional $300,000 to cover expenses related to technical assistance and program administration. State funding for the HFHC program was set aside by Governor Paterson in the 2009–10 State Budget. The Low Income Investment Fund (LIIF), in partnership with The Reinvestment Fund (TRF) and The Food Trust, was selected through an RFP to administer the fund.

Empire State Development Chairman & CEO Dennis M. Mullen said: “Governor Paterson created the Healthy Food/Healthy Communities Initiative in 2009 to respond to the lack of access to affordable, nutritious, fresh food in underserved communities. The Governor came to ESD because our commitment doesn’t start and end with businesses. Improving New York’s economy includes the health and well-being of all New Yorkers. By working with LIIF, we are not only increasing access to healthy food in the neighborhoods that need it, we are also creating jobs and revitalizing neighborhoods.”

An estimated 1.7 million New Yorkers, including 750,000 in New York City, live in neighborhoods that have limited access to stores providing healthy food options or fresh groceries. People living in these areas often shop for food at corner stores where high-sugar, high-fat food products dominate the shelves. By providing grants and loans to encourage food retailers to increase the supply of affordable, fresh food in these areas, the Healthy Food & Healthy Communities Fund aims to offer more healthful choices to the State’s residents. The initiative will create approximately 382 construction jobs and create or retain more than 3,000 direct jobs.

LIIF, the lead fund administrator, will draw on its 25 years of experience providing innovative grant and loan funds to low income communities to manage all aspects of this program, including originating loans and grants and ongoing portfolio management. TRF is the partnering administrator and is working with LIIF to build the HFHC Fund and underwrite loans. TRF has also provided LIIF with customized data analysis to help estimate the severity of the food access problem in New York and identify underserved areas across the State. The Food Trust, a nationally recognized nonprofit food access organization, will lead outreach efforts and evaluate applications for eligibility. Grants will range from $5,000 to $500,000 and loans from $250,000 to $5 million and higher for New Markets Tax Credit transactions. Fund participants can use the capital for predevelopment, acquisition, or construction activities, or as a term loan. Additionally, LIIF and its partners will work with borrowers to further leverage the fund’s loans to attract additional capital.

For more information, please visit LIIF’s website, www.liifund.org/healthyfood, to download an application or to learn more about the New York HFHC Fund. To contact the fund administrator, email nyhealthyfood@liifund.org or call (212) 509-5509 ext. 16.

Empire State Development is New York’s chief economic development agency, committed to being recognized on a global scale as the economic development engine driving job growth, strategic investment, and prosperity in New York State. ESD is intent on paving the way for New York State to become the leader of the innovation economy and one of the most business-friendly, productive and competitive economic development climates in the world. ESD also oversees the marketing of “I LOVE NY,” the State’s iconic tourism brand. For more information, visit: www.esd.ny.gov.

The Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. is a leading global investment banking, securities and investment management firm that provides a wide range of financial services to a substantial and diversified client base that includes corporations, financial institutions, governments, and high-net-worth individuals. Founded in 1869, the firm is headquartered in New York and maintains offices in London, Frankfurt, Tokyo, Hong Kong and other major financial centers around the world.

The New York State Health Foundation (NYSHealth) is a private Foundation dedicated to improving the health of all New Yorkers. NYSHealth has a three-part mission: expanding health insurance coverage, increasing access to high-quality health care services, and improving public and community health by educating New Yorkers about health issues and empowering communities to address them. NYSHealth was established with charitable funds from the privatization of Empire Blue Cross/Blue Shield.

Low Income Investment Fund (LIIF) has served more than 860,000 people since 1984, by providing over $900 million in financing and technical assistance to hundreds of community organizations serving the nation’s poorest and hardest-to-reach populations. LIIF’s primary program areas are affordable and supportive housing, child care, and education facilities benefiting low income people and families. Over its history, LIIF has generated over $17 billion in societal and family benefits and provided the financing and technical assistance to create and preserve: 55,000 units of affordable housing; over 150,000 child care spaces; 50,000 spaces in schools; and 3.2 million square feet of community facilities and commercial space. LIIF has offices in San Francisco, Los Angeles, New York City, and Washington, D.C. For more information about LIIF, visit www.liifund.org.

The Reinvestment Fund (TRF) is a leading national innovator in capitalizing distressed communities and stimulating economic growth for low- and moderate-income families. Central to its mission is a commitment to put capital and private initiative to work for the public good. TRF invests in homes, schools, food access, and sustainable energy, the values and community resources that our cities and families need to thrive. Since its inception in 1985, TRF has made $1 billion in community investments. TRF is nationally recognized for its research and housing-related policy analysis. TRF’s data analysis focuses both on helping TRF identify opportunities to invest its own resources as well as providing services to public sector and private clients seeking assistance with their own strategies to preserve and rebuild vulnerable communities. TRF’s analytical strength is also reflected in its newly created national online data and mapping tool that is available for all internet users at www.policymap.com. The tool offers thousands of data indicators to help users understand a place, compare places or track their own investments in a place. To learn more about TRF, visit www.trfund.com.

The Food Trust, a nonprofit founded in 1992, works to ensure that everyone has access to affordable, nutritious food. Working with neighborhoods, schools, grocers, farmers, and policymakers, The Food Trust has developed a comprehensive approach that combines nutrition education and greater availability of affordable, healthy food. For more information, visit: thefoodtrust.org.

The following statements were provided in support of the public-private partnership to expand grocery stores in underserved neighborhoods:

Lloyd C. Blankfein, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Goldman Sachs, said: “As part of our broader focus on partnering with Community Development Financial Institutions (CDFIs), we are very pleased to help increase access to healthier food for underserved communities. This effort goes hand-inhand with our investments in job creation, entrepreneurship, and affordable housing.”

Nancy O. Andrews, LIIF’s President and CEO, said: “The Low Income Investment Fund is excited to get to work helping bring fresh food to underserved people now that the New York Health Food & Healthy Communities Fund is launched. Thanks to Governor Paterson’s leadership, capital investments from Goldman Sachs and Empire State Development, and support from NYSHealth Foundation, LIIF and our partners will provide thousands of New Yorkers access to healthy food.”

Don Hinkle-Brown, President of Community Investments and Capital Markets at TRF, said: “Our experience in Pennsylvania has shown that a strong private-public partnership and a data framework is critical to creating an effective food access initiative. We applaud Goldman Sachs and Empire State Development for their investment and leadership in this effort to bring affordable foods and jobs to underserved communities across New York.”

Yael Lehmann, The Food Trust Executive Director, said: “The New York Healthy Food & Healthy Communities Fund recognizes how important it is that everyone has access to affordable, nutritious food. We are thrilled to be working with Empire State Development, the Low Income Investment Fund, and The Reinvestment Fund to bring healthy food to families throughout New York.”

James R. Knickman, Ph.D., President and CEO of the New York State Health Foundation, said: “Ensuring access to affordable, nutritious foods is essential to keeping New Yorkers healthy, reducing obesity, and preventing the onset of illnesses like diabetes. We’re so pleased to support a partnership that will yield tremendous health benefits for our State.”

Additional news available at www.ny.gov/governor High resolution images available at www.ny.gov/governor/mediaimages | password: paterson New York State | Executive Chamber | press.office@chamber.state.ny.us | 212.681.4640 | 518.474.8418 Follow us on Facebook and Twitter

SOURCE: The Goldman Sachs Group, Inc.

Click here to read the press release from Goldman Sachs on MarketWatch on September 30th, 2010.

By Prashant Gopal

2008 was the year that subprime borrowers and speculators got hurt by the real estate crisis. 2009 could be when everyone else gets hit.

Until now, the nation’s most serious home price declines have been in low-cost markets that were dominated by subprime mortgages, and in overbuilt markets such as Florida, California, and Las Vegas, where residential values are sliding fast toward pre-housing boom levels.

The Commerce Dept. reported Dec. 23 that November new-home sales in the U.S. fell to their lowest level in 17 years, down 35.3% compared with November 2007. And the outlook is even bleaker. The same day, Credit Suisse (CS) forecast that more than 8 million homes will go into foreclosure over the next four years, or approximately 16% of all U.S. households with mortgages.

That’s because the big story in 2009 could be that, with the deepening recession and mounting job losses, serious housing troubles could infect wealthier communities and markets that were just beginning to stabilize this summer before the bankruptcy of Lehman Brothers on Sept. 15 sparked the most serious financial turmoil in decades. In fact, according to online real estate research firm HousingPredictor.com, based in Destin, Fla., housing prices nationwide will fall 12.5% next year, compared with an estimated 11.1% this year.

Housing and mortgage problems pushed the nation into a recession that could now amplify, draw out, and expand the reach of the housing declines.

Manhattan Hit, Too

Take Manhattan, for example, where condo and co-op prices soared years after housing bubbles in most other major cities popped. New York City’s real estate market was bolstered by residents who were still earning sky-high Wall Street bonuses and by a weak dollar that attracted overseas bargain hunters.

Now that the dollar has strengthened, the economic woes have spread to potential New York home buyers across the globe, and thousands of New York financial professionals are collecting severance. Manhattan apartment prices, as a result, have dropped as much as 20% since the summer, said Jonathan Miller, president and chief executive officer of real estate appraisal firm Miller Samuel. Miller’s analysis is based on contracts signed in recent months, rather than actual closings.

“Mid-september was a milestone,” Miller said. “That’s where you saw a pronounced slowdown in transaction volume.”

HousingPredictor.com is projecting a 19.4% decline in Manhattan home prices in 2009. And Moody’s Economy.com is predicting that condo prices in New York City, Northern New Jersey, and Westchester County will fall 29% by the fourth quarter of next year.

“Nationally, we think this recession is going to be worse than anything we’ve seen in 40 years,” said Marisa DiNatale, senior economist for Moody’s Economy.com. “If the economy gets that bad, then you will start to see foreclosures in Manhattan as well.”

Smaller Declines

On the other hand, the speculative Las Vegas, Arizona, California, and Florida markets, which have already seen annual home-price declines of up to 30%, could see slightly smaller declines simply because values have already fallen so much, according to Mike Colpitts, editor of HousingPredictor.com.

Some Florida markets, including Naples, Orlando, and Tampa, are already seeing declines moderate a bit, but problems in other Florida markets, such as Miami, continue to get worse, Colpitts said.

Few areas across the country will likely escape the recession and the corresponding impact on the real estate market, housing experts say. Another wave of foreclosures could be triggered next year as a flood of Alt-A and option adjustable-rate mortgages, which were given to people with decent credit, begin to recast.

Most of the option ARMs, which allow borrowers to make minimum payments that don’t even cover the accrued interest, are concentrated in already battered California, Florida, and Las Vegas.

Option ARMs originating in 2006 make up about $140 billion of the $350 billion of outstanding option ARMs, and 45% to 50% of them are expected to default, according to an analysis this past summer by Lehman Brothers. The 2007 option ARMs, which were originated just as home prices began falling, were expected to perform similarly badly.

Lost Jobs

Problems in other states could have less to do with risky mortgages and more to do with job losses. The impact of unemployment on the real estate market and the larger economy are already on display in hard-hit manufacturing cities such as Gary, Ind., and Detroit. Alabama, Arkansas, Atlanta, Michigan, and Ohio could see problems next year, Colpitts said.

“We’re in the middle of the game here,” said Joseph Seneca, professor of economics at Rutgers University in New Jersey. “There’s significant further unwinding to come…. We’re in a downward spiral with job losses that is reinforcing the weakness in the consumer markets, particularly in the largest investment the consumer makes, in his home.”

Seneca said the government’s aggressive policies to stabilize housing by injecting liquidity in banks, lowering interest rates, tax stimulus packages, and other efforts will help. But the downward cycle will end only when prices fall far enough that they attract large numbers of buyers.

The nation’s energy-producing states, such as North Dakota, South Dakota, Oklahoma, Alaska, and Montana, could be economic bright spots next year. Despite falling oil and natural gas prices, those industries remain robust.

Texas Troubles

The economy in Texas, however, is beginning to get hit as unemployment rises and consumer spending drops, Colpitts said. He added that the Houston market, which has been remarkably stable, could drop about 8.5% next year. Five of the six supermajor energy companies maintain large operating bases in Houston, including ConocoPhillips (COP), ExxonMobil (XOM), Royal Dutch Shell (RDS), and BP (BP). The overbuilt San Antonio market could see a 10.2% drop. Austin, which is a high-tech center, could also be hurt as the technology sector gets damaged by weak consumer spending, he said.

And Charlotte, N.C., a major banking center that had been one of the nation’s strongest real estate markets, could have its own housing troubles. Charlotte-based Bank of America (BAC) just this month announced that it would cut up to 35,000 jobs over the next few years.

But a few places are poised for a potential recovery.

The housing market in and around Washington, D.C., which suffered greatly in the wake of the housing bust, could begin to recover, largely because the nation’s capital has so many recession-proof government and defense contracting jobs, said DiNatale of Moody’s Economy.com.

Other areas, such as the Boston area, San Diego, and Orange County, Calif., are getting close to affordability levels seen before the housing boom and could begin to level off, said DiNatale.

She added: “A lot of this depends on the economy over the next few months, help from the federal government, and whether buyers come back to the market.”

Click here to see the markets that were hurt the most by the real estate downturn in 2008.

Click Here to read the full article.
This article by Prashant Gopal on Businessweek on Wednesday December 23, 2008.