The Kansas Health Institute (KHI) is a healthcare policy think tank, created to provide information on health and wellness issues to Kansas policymakers.
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The KHI was founded in 1995 by the Kansas Health Foundation (KHF), a large, independent, non-profit foundation created to advance the health of Kansans. The foundation reportedly did so on the basis of its conclusion that Kansas health policy decisions often were based on fragmented, anecdotal, information — sometimes biased.
The KHI produces reference data and reports that are intended to advance the quality of the debate and decisions about health care policy in Kansas government. Examples of its reports are:
The KHF is ostensibly non-partisan, but often focuses negatively on Republicans and Libertarians (who overwhelmingly control Kansas government) for their policies on healthcare and related issues. The organization frequently calls attention to issues somewhat broadher than the narrow theme of health and wellness, such as Kansas government tax policies and Kansas utilities' solar energy policies.
KHI News Service
The nonprofit KHI News Service is an editorially independent initiative of the KHI, and a partner in the Heartland Health Monitor reporting collaboration. The KHI News Service allows "All stories and photos" to "be republished at no cost with proper attribution and a link back to KHI.org when a story is reposted online."
Funding
The KHI started with funds from the Kansas Health Foundation, and continues to be sustained by a core operating grant from the KHF. However, the KHI also gets significant amounts of project-specific funding from various other foundations, and from state and federal agencies. The KHI's annual budget has grown to over $3 million.
Personnel
The KHI has staff members drawn from a variety of disciplines, including medicine, public and community health, health policy and management, health administration, law, political science, sociology, anthropology, engineering, communications, journalism and business. KHI work also involves many consultants, providing added expertise for selected projects.
Specific personnel, have included: