Strategies for building representative HSAs: the impact of legal structure

The goal of having local health planning agencies represent their communities is considered. A basic premise is that the legal structure of an agency is related to how well a community is represented. This premise is tested, and two strategies are presented for building HSAs which will include strong representation of traditionally under-represented or under-served groups: (1) increasing competition for governing-body membership by requiring all planning agency governing bodies to be small (30 members or less); and (2) increasing the organizational simplicity of the HSA.