State public health departments do not necessarily lose funding when merged with larger Medicaid programs, according to a recently published study led by Dr. Paula Lantz, chair of the department of health policy at the George Washington University School of Public Health and Health Services.  Dr. Lantz, who conducted the study while at the University of Michigan School of Public Health, led a team that studied organizational change in state health-related departments from 1990 to 2009. The researchers discovered that in many cases states kept the same organizational structure in place during the 20-year period.