The Center of Excellence is housed within the Georgia Health Policy Center, a nationally recognized public health institute that has been the go-to health policy research center for legislators, state agency leadership, and governors in Georgia, as well as for federal agencies and national philanthropies since 1995. The center, housed in the Andrew Young School of Policy Studies at Georgia State University, remains relevant through dramatic changes within the health care system because it provides objective, credible, and timely health policy guidance and evidence to support excellence in programs, practice, and policy; advocates for a way to approach problems, rather than for a specific solution; and remains committed to building strong partnerships based on the principles of trust, value, and support.

Upholding this tradition, the Center of Excellence is a provider of credible, relevant information for decision-making that supports an effective behavioral health system of care.

The center provides consultative policy analysis and thought partnership to legislators and leadership from public and private child-serving agencies. The Center of Excellence holds itself to rigorous standards, making it a trusted third-party, capable of producing impartial and meticulous policy analysis. These standards ensure that strategic policy and financing analysis is tailored to the partner’s needs, yet methodically produced to support decision-making associated with improving the effectiveness of behavioral health systems.

Recent policy analysis conducted by the Center of Excellence includes:

• Conducting financial analysis of state-level spending and billing codes for reimbursement
• Modeling policies to assess potential impact
• Conducting landscape analyses and national policy scans
• Facilitating and supporting state-level workgroups’ strategic planning, aligning of resources, and implementation of state plans.