The University of Missouri, recognizing its mission as a land-grant institution and its responsibility as the academic flagship of Missouri, developed the CHP in 2002 to foster dialogue and analysis of health policy issues important to the welfare of Missourians.

Since its inception, the CHP has been responsive to trends and emergent issues in health care by providing objective analysis, education and communication. CHP’s activities strive to incorporate the interests and concerns of all stakeholders to enhance an ongoing awareness of the rapidly changing health care environment.

CHP has several focus areas:

• Improving the quality and efficiency of MO HealthNet, Missouri’s Medicaid program
• Improving health literacy
• Reducing health disparities
• Ensuring an adequate health care workforce in Missouri
• Expanding health insurance coverage in both the private and public sectors
• Expanding rural and urban access to services otherwise not available locally via innovative telehealth interventions such as Show-Me ECHO.
• Reducing childhood obesity

All activities and projects are guided by the principles of collaboration, issue awareness and education, translation of research into practice, policy formation and strategic communication.

CHP strategies include education initiatives, summits, conferences, research, outreach to communities, and multimodal communication. All efforts are multidisciplinary and supported by collaborators from academia, public and private communities, interest groups, community partners, state and local agents, and elected officials.

In 2017, the Center for Health Policy provided 200 hours of training to 1,653 individuals.