Wednesday, September 17, 2014, 1:00 - 2:30 p.m. EDT
Overview: This webinar was presented by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation’s Changes in Health Care Financing and Organization (HCFO) initiative.
The Current Population Survey (CPS), a household survey conducted jointly by the U.S. Census Bureau and the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), is a primary source of economic and labor market data for the U.S. population. Because CPS’s Annual Social and Economic Supplement (ASEC) has collected data about health insurance coverage every year since the 1980s, the CPS has become a rich resource for health services researchers tracking coverage trends. Beginning with the 2014 ASEC (which is administered in February, March and April of 2014 and asks questions about coverage during the calendar year 2013), the Census Bureau implemented a redesign of the health insurance questions to provide more precise measures of coverage. Among other changes, the new method captures current health insurance coverage in addition to coverage on a monthly basis since the beginning of the previous calendar year. The Census Bureau expects to release estimates from the redesigned survey in September 2014.
This free webinar discussed the use of CPS for applied policy research and explore the survey redesign. Both new and experienced researchers were encouraged to register. Kathleen Adams, Emory University and Patricia Ketsche, Georgia State University, discussed how they are using CPS in their current HCFO-funded project and the issues the survey redesign raises for this type of research. Following their presentation, Joanne Pascale from the U.S. Census Bureau provided an overview of the CPS, explained the changes in detail, and discussed both the opportunities the redesign creates for researchers and potential solutions to the challenges it poses. The speakers responded to the participants’ questions during the final 30 minutes of the webinar.
This presentation is intended to be a professional resource. Please note that some of the slides are pre-publication and are not intended for distribution or citation.
Faculty:
Michael Gluck, Ph.D., M.P.P. AcademyHealth (moderator); Joanne Pascale, M.A., Census Bureau; E. Kathleen Adams, Ph.D., Emory University; and Patricia Ketsche, Ph.D., M.B.A., M.H.A., Georgia State University
Learning Objectives: This free webinar will provided:
- An overview of the Current Population Survey (CPS), its relevance for studying health insurance coverage, and how researchers can access its data.
- Examples of the important policy questions the CPS is uniquely suitable to answer and insights into the strengths and limitations of the data from two experienced researchers currently using CPS data in their own research work.
- An understanding of how the Census Bureau has redesigned the CPS’s health insurance questions and implications of these changes for researchers.
Registration Price: Free
Course Level: 101 (Introductory)
Faculty Bios:
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Michael E. Gluck, Ph.D., M.P.P., (moderator) is the Senior Director of Evidence Generation and Translation, where he co-Directs AcademyHealth's Translation and Dissemination Institute, directs several of the Institute's projects, and works with the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation’s Changes in Health Care Financing and Organization (HCFO). His interests and work focus on the translation and comunication of research to inform policy. He has held positions with the former Congressional Office of Technology Assessment, the National Academy of Social Insurance, the California Health Benefits Review Program, and Georgetown University. He received a B.A. in history magna cum laude from Haverford College and M.P.P. and Ph.D. degrees in public policy from Harvard University. |
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Joanne Pascale, M.A. works on questionnaire design and evaluation in the Center for Survey Measurement at the U.S. Census Bureau. For more than 15 years she has been specializing in the area of health coverage measurement, focusing on the Current Population Survey and the American Community Survey and, most recently, how to measure coverage in a post-reform era. She has a master’s degree in applied survey research from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. |
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E. Kathleen Adams, Ph.D. is an economist with over 25 years of experience in health services research and is currently a Professor in the RSPH Department of Health Policy and Management where she teaches classes on public finance and access to health care. Throughout her career the focus of her research has been on low-income and vulnerable populations and this has translated into extensive experience with Medicaid populations, issues and policies including significant work on access for Medicaid and CHIP enrollees. She has recently completed work on the effects of Medicaid family planning waivers, the burden of financing health care across income groups and the effects of legislation that let low-income cancer patients into Medicaid more quickly. Current projects include examining the effects of ACA on women of reproductive age and new mothers as well as the effects of prior Medicaid expansions on insurance status of both parent and child. |
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Patricia Ketsche, Ph.D., M.B.A., M.H.A. is an associate professor in the Institute of Health Administration and a Fellow in the Georgia Health Policy Center, both located at Georgia State University. Dr. Ketsche is a health services researcher with a particular interest in the financing and administration of public coverage programs and private insurance for health care. She worked for several years as an internal and external consultant for employee benefits, assisting firms in evaluating and implementing managed care plans. Prior to that, she worked as a physical therapist in a variety of health care settings. Dr. Ketsche earned a Ph.D. in Risk Management and Insurance and master degrees in Business and Health Administration from Georgia State University. She earned her undergraduate degree in Physical Therapy from the University of Pennsylvania. |
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