Mansfield public health program a model for federal reform provision

U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown visited Mansfield this week to highlight the work of the Community Health Access Project, a county health worker program that serves as a model for a provision in the federal health reform legislation that passed in March  (Source: “Local program a model for nation,” (Mansfield) News Journal, July 7, 2010).

Started in Mansfield in 1999, CHAP was expanded to rural Knox County in 2000 and involves facilitating visits by county health workers to populations that experiences high rates of low-birthweight babies. The program estimates that in its first three years of operation, the number of low-birthweight babies in the region declinded 22.7 percent.

Sen. Brown pushed for inclusion of a grant program in the federal legislation that will fund programs modeled after CHAP.