Health care coverage, from private insurance to employer-provided health care to public programs like Medicare and Medicaid, can have various impacts on people’s use of health care and, ultimately, their health and well-being.
The lack of high quality, accessible national claims data has long been a roadblock to robust Medicaid research and subsequent evidence-based policymaking in the United States. While the release of TAF marked a significant improvement, research faculty with AcademyHealth’s Medicaid Data Learning Network (MDLN) outline important steps that state and federal policy makers can take to improve data quality, accessibility, and usability.
In its first year, the Medicaid Data Learning Network (MDLN) facilitated expert presentations and collaboration among TAF experts and member research teams by hosting an in-person meeting at AcademyHealth's Annual Research Meeting (ARM) and eight virtual learning sessions. This publication presents a summary of the findings from the first year of the Medicaid Data Learning Network, including key takeaways for the research and policy communities from each learning session.
Community organizations co-lead four new studies examining affordability of care for historically marginalized communities, awarded under the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation’s Research in Transforming Health and Healthcare Systems program, managed by AcademyHealth.
AcademyHealth presents research nominated as the best abstract for each theme from the 2023 Call for Abstracts, exploring topics related to patient-centered research, mental health and substance use, women’s health, and more.
With funding support from the Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI), AcademyHealth and the University of Pittsburgh are bringing together six Medicaid programs, their university research partners, as well as eight doula programs to leverage an innovative distributed research network to advance racial equity in severe maternal morbidity.
The Evidence-Based State Health Policy Institute shares reflections from 2022 and previews what we and our Network members are looking forward to in 2023.
Overall, community health workers roles in Medicaid Managed Care Organizations appear to focus on supporting clinical care and making referrals for social issues, rather than addressing community-level concerns, according to these national, cross-sectional survey results.
This national study of the roles and activities of community health workers supported by Medicaid Managed Care Organizations finds that community health workers employed by Managed Care Organizations reported receiving significantly more training and benefits from their employers than community health workers who were contracted through other organizations.
Collectively, regulatory pressures, organizational strategy, and market forces influenced Medicaid Managed Care Organization’s efforts to address social determinants of health, leading to a normalization of their role in addressing members' social needs within a medical paradigm.
