The Fund supports networks of state health policy decision makers to help identify, inspire, and inform policy leaders.
The Milbank Memorial Fund supports two state leadership programs for legislative and executive branch state government officials committed to improving population health.
The Fund identifies and shares policy ideas and analysis to advance state health leadership, strong primary care, and sustainable health care costs.
Keep up with news and updates from the Milbank Memorial Fund. And read the latest posts from our staff and guest authors.
The Fund publishes The Milbank Quarterly, as well as reports, issues briefs, and case studies on topics important to health policy leaders.
The Milbank Memorial Fund is is a foundation that works to improve population health and health equity.
The Milbank Memorial Fund has published The Milbank Quarterly, a peer-reviewed journal of population health and health policy since 1923. It has also commissioned and published reports since early in the last century. Today, the Fund publishes reports, issue briefs, and case studies, as well as reported articles and short-form States of Health and On Balance: Policies for Health posts . If you would like to suggest a publication idea within our key areas of state health leadership, primary care transformation, or health care affordability, please email Communications Director Christine Haran at charan@milbank.org.
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Fact Sheet
July 2026 Hayley Piazza,
Medicaid Section 1115 demonstration projects, commonly referred to as waivers, are widely used by states to test innovative approaches to improving population health through Medicaid programs. More
June 2026
The criminal justice system’s influence on health includes not only direct physical harm, but also chronic stress, mental health crises, infectious disease transmission, and the erosion of community social capital. More
April 2026 Mary Louise Gilburg, Morgan McDonald,
The Milbank State Leadership Network hosted a virtual session for state legislators and executive branch leaders to discuss how states are planning to leverage the Rural Health Transformation Program (RHTP) to improve maternal and child health (MCH). Leaders from Mississippi, Indiana, and Oklahoma shared early implementation strategies, highlighting how states are aligning funding, infrastructure, and community partnerships to expand access to care and improve outcomes. More
October 2025 Sofia Espinosa, Mary Louise Gilburg, Morgan McDonald,
The Milbank State Leadership Network (MSLN) hosted two virtual sessions for state-to-state discussion on opportunities and strategies related to the federal Rural Health Transformation (RHT) Program, recently launched by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS). More
October 2025 Mary Louise Gilburg, Morgan McDonald,
Event date: September 11, 2025 Introduction The Milbank State Leadership Network hosted a virtual session for state legislative and executive… More
August 2025 Mary Louise Gilburg, Morgan McDonald,
The Milbank State Leadership Network hosted a virtual session for state legislators and legislative staff to discuss state legislative activity to address the rising cost of prescription drugs. More
June 2025 Mary Louise Gilburg, Morgan McDonald,
The Milbank State Leadership Network hosted a virtual session for state legislators and legislative staff to discuss factors contributing to rising health care costs as well as opportunities for states to slow spending growth and make health care more affordable, with a particular focus on hospital costs. The briefing was hosted in partnership with Bailit Health, the technical assistance provider for the Peterson-Milbank Program for Sustainable Healthcare Costs. More
May 2025 Sarah Kinsler, Caitlin Otter,
This document describes the hospital-specific market basket methodology, which states can use to calculate hospital performance against the hospital price growth target. The Peterson-Milbank Program for Sustainable Health Care Costs funded the development of code that can be used to perform this analysis using state all-payer claims data. The document also includes key design and implementation considerations for states pursuing a hospital price growth target. More
April 2025 Sofia Espinosa, Morgan McDonald,
The Milbank State Leadership Network hosted a virtual session for state legislators and legislative staff to hear directly from state and local public health officials on the impact of funding and federal program staffing cuts to core services. More
March 2025 Sofia Espinosa, Mary Louise Gilburg, Morgan McDonald,
The Milbank State Leadership Network hosted experts from the National Conference of State Legislatures (NCSL) to discuss state legislative approaches to Medicaid and behavioral health policy during the 2025 state legislative season. The conversation explored bipartisan approaches to strengthen coverage, address rising costs amid severe budget constraints, and, improve access to substance use disorder treatment and suicide prevention. More
