Health Policy Commons^™

The Impact Of The Covid-19 Pandemic On The Well-Being Of People Incarcerated In United States Prisons, Kimberly Rivera

Department of Sociology: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

The COVID-19 pandemic has negatively impacted the population as a whole. However, the incarcerated population (which also experiences a variety of health disparities) has been disproportionately affected by the pandemic. Due to overcrowding, poor ventilation, and lack of resources, the incarcerated population already is at a heightened risk for negative health outcomes, made worse by the recent pandemic. To adapt to the rapidly changing conditions during the pandemic in 2020 and into 2022, new safety measures were implemented, but the unintended consequences associated with the implementation of these procedures have yet to be examined empirically. I conducted a qualitative content …

Nursing Homes In The Mountain West, 2023, Annie Vong, Caitlin J. Saladino, William E. Brown Jr.

Health

This fact sheet presents nursing home data in the Mountain West states of Arizona, Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico, and Utah. Data from a September 2023 ProPublica publication titled, “Nursing Home Inspect” are presented including the total number of nursing homes, homes with serious deficiencies, homes with infection related deficiencies, the amount nursing homes paid in penalties and the number of payment suspensions for nursing homes in the Mountain West.

Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (Snap) Eligibility And Access In Nevada, 2018-2020, Lana Kojoian, Annie Vong, Zachary Billot, Caitlin J. Saladino, William E. Brown Jr.

Health

This fact sheet examines data from the American Community Survey and Nevada administrative records exploring Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) eligibility and access rates for Nevada counties. The original report includes data on SNAP eligibility and access for 23 states from 2018 to 2020.

Combatting Rising Healthcare Costs For Healthier Adults, Alejandra Muñoz-Rivera

Social Policy Institute Research

In 2020, healthcare expenditures averaged $12,530 per person, up 9.7% from 2019. In 2018, 19% of U.S. households had medical debt with $2,000 being the median amount owed. Over half of adults between 18 to 64 years of age are estimated to experience some form of medical financial hardship including medical bills or debt, stress about medical bills, and delaying or forgoing treatment specifically due to cost. In a 2022 survey of 140 Medicaid and Marketplace members by researchers from the Social Policy Institute (SPI) and the Centene Center of Health Transformation, one-third of respondents reported having unpaid medical bills. …

Pandemic Governance, Yanbai Andrea Wang, Justin Weinstein-Tull

All Faculty Scholarship

The COVID-19 pandemic created an unprecedented need for governance by a multiplicity of authorities. The nature of the pandemic—globally communicable, uncontrolled, and initially mysterious—required a coordinated response to a common problem. But the pandemic was superimposed atop our decentralized domestic and international governance structures, and the result was devastating: the United States has a death rate that is eighteenth highest in the world, and the pandemic has had dramatically unequal impacts across the country. COVID-19’s effects have been particularly destructive for communities of color, women, and intersectional populations.

This Article finds order in the chaos of the pandemic response by …

The State Of Mental Health In The Mountain West, Olivia K. Cheche, Kristian Thymianos, Katie M. Gilbertson, Kelliann Beavers, Caitlin J. Saladino, William E. Brown Jr.

Health

This fact sheet explores mental health rankings of Mountain West states from Mental Health America’s (MHA) 2022 report, The State of Mental Health in America. This study offers a snapshot of U.S. mental health based on data across all 50 states and the District of Columbia. MHA is the nation’s leading community based mental health nonprofit, founded in 1909, and “dedicated to addressing the needs of those living with mental illness and promoting the overall mental health of all.” This report is a companion to MHA’s interactive data available through its website.

Senior Hunger In The Mountain West, 2019, Ally M. Beckwith, Caitlin J. Saladino, William E. Brown Jr.

Health

This fact sheet highlights data on senior hunger in the Mountain West region in 2019 as originally reported in Feeding America’s The State of Senior Hunger annual series. This report focuses on the extent of food insecurity among seniors in the United States. Seniors are defined as those who are 60 years of age or older.

Healthcare Transformation In Saudi Arabia: An Overview Since The Launch Of Vision 2030, Ahmed Ali Alasiri, Viqaruddin Mohammed

University Administration Publications

Saudi Arabia’s Vision 2030 has taken a centre stage in the development of its healthcare sector through privatization adopting Public Private Partnerships (PPPs). The objective of this study is to provide an overview of healthcare transformation in Saudi Arabia since the launch of the ambitious Vision 2030, identifying issues those need to be addressed and steps taken towards provision of health systems transformation. Literature review was based on extensive review of published and unpublished articles, where different search engines and databases searched using the key words: ‘Saudi Healthcare’, ‘Healthcare transformation’, ‘Saudi vision: 2030’, ‘Public-Private Partnerships’ and ‘Privatization’, in addition to …

Executive Summary- Social Protection In Egypt: Mitigating The Socio-Economic Effects Of The Covid-19 Pandemic On Vulnerable Employment, Dina Makram-Ebeid, Amr Adly, Nadine Sika, Hania M Sholkamy, Samer Atallah

Faculty Journal Articles

This is the executive summary of an interdisciplinary project between the fields of development economics, political economy, labor sociology, development anthropology and public health. It reviews the social protection available to vulnerable employees and their households in Egypt and suggests ways to adapt them in light of the COVID 19 pandemic. The research focuses on four areas a) employment security b) social assistance c) health insurance d) gendered mitigations. The project will map the impact of the crisis on vulnerable employees and their households and propose policy interventions to alleviate the socio-economic effects of the pandemic through the publication of …

It Shouldn’T Take A Pandemic To Increase School Meal Access For Low-Income Students: A Two-Step Floating Catchment Area Analysis Of School Meal Access During Covid-19, Jason Jabbari, Yung Chun, Pranav Nandan, Laura Mcdermott, Tyler Frank, Dan Ferris, Sarah Moreland-Russell, Stephen Roll

Social Policy Institute Research

COVID-19 created an additional barrier for students who benefit from free school meals. While some schools attempted to provide alternative meal access points, many students lack adequate transportation. Thus, physical proximity to meal access points is particularly important during the pandemic. Taking into account both the “supply” and the “demand” for free meals, we employed a two-step floating catchment area analysis to analyze meal accessibility in St. Louis, MO. Overall, while meal access during the spring 2020 semester was substantially lower than the spring 2019 semester, meal access during the 2020 summer was substantially higher than the 2019 summer. Moreover, …

Covid-19: Coronavirus Cases At Colleges And Universities In The Mountain West, Madison Frazee-Bench, Kristian Thymianos, Caitlin J. Saladino, William E. Brown Jr.

Health

This fact sheet highlights coronavirus cases at colleges and universities in the Mountain West region. The New York Times recently published, “Tracking Coronavirus Cases at U.S. Colleges and Universities” which maps out the reported number of COVID-19 cases at higher education institutions in the U.S. at the start of the Fall 2020 semester.

The Impact Of Location On Healthcare Access For Individuals With Disabilities, Addison Kimber

Honors Scholar Theses

This paper analyzes healthcare access for individuals with disabilities living in rural areas. In current political discussion, we typically think of insurance coverage as the metric to analyze healthcare access. However, as demonstrated by studies of healthcare in the United Kingdom, people with disabilities continue to face barriers to health care even with universal healthcare systems. In particular, individuals in rural areas have less healthcare access than urban residents. This is due to factors including socioeconomic status, insurance coverage, access to competent care, and transportation. This study aims to understand if disability status exacerbates the issue of access in rural …

Sociodemographic And Health Status Characteristics Of Maine's Newly Eligible Medicaid Beneficiaries [Data Brief], Zachariah T. Croll Mph, Erika C. Ziller Phd, Barbara Leonard Mph

Medicaid

This data brief identifies key characteristics of groups who will gain access through MaineCare expansion. Researchers Croll and Ziller at the University of Southern Maine, along with Leonardson of the Maine Health Access Foundation present a statistical analysis of uninsured non-elderly adults age 18 – 64 with no children and lower incomes, the population newly eligible for MaineCare through expansion. Drawing from five years of data from Maine’s Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System, the report addresses sociodemographic characteristics, health status, and access to care. The survey indicates that those who are likely eligible for expanded MaineCare coverage are twice as …

Fostering University Collaboration And Building Capacity To Respond To Coastal Resilience Challenges In Virginia: Findings From The Rotating Resilience Roundtables Workshop Spring 2019, Wie Yusuf, Michelle Covi, Anamaria Bukvic, Tom Allen, Taiwo Oguntuyo

Presentations, Lectures, Posters, Reports

[from Background and Overview]

Communities in coastal Virginia, particularly in the urban region of Hampton Roads and the rural Eastern Shore peninsula, are experiencing the impacts of climate change as part of everyday life. Among the most apparent impacts are sea level rise and associated flooding, but increasingly residents of the region are observing changing ecosystems, health impacts and complex social challenges are made more difficult. The region is experiencing the fastest rate of relative sea level rise on the U.S. east coast due to interactions between ocean currents, global sea level rise, high-water tables and ground subsidence (Adapt Virginia …

Health Care's Market Bureaucracy, Allison K. Hoffman

All Faculty Scholarship

The last several decades of health law and policy have been built on a foundation of economic theory. This theory supported the proliferation of market-based policies that promised maximum efficiency and minimal bureaucracy. Neither of these promises has been realized. A mounting body of empirical research discussed in this Article makes clear that leading market-based policies are not efficient — they fail to capture what people want. Even more, this Article describes how the struggle to bolster these policies — through constant regulatory, technocratic tinkering that aims to improve the market and the decision-making of consumers in it — has …

Unlv School Of Medicine: Rethinking Governance, Planning, And Economic Impact, The Lincy Institute

Brookings Scholar Lecture Series

The launch of the UNLV School of Medicine presented a unique opportunity for Southern Nevada to address two critical issues: the absence of adequate healthcare services for a region of more than 2.2 million people, and the economic impact of a new medical school resulting in an expanded regional health care economy. A collaborative process that engages local, state, and private sector interests is essential to the development of the UNLV School of Medicine and the expansion of an effective, efficient, and profitable healthcare economy.

In this colloquium The Lincy Institute released new health policy publications prepared with the support …

Detroit Food Metrics Report 2017, Alex B. Hill, Amy Kuras

Urban Studies and Planning Faculty Research Publications

This report provides a snapshot of data and information on Detroit’s food system as well as trends over time. The report includes a broad range of programs and initiatives that local organizations, the Detroit Food Policy Council, and the City of Detroit are undertaking to address food insecurity, increase healthy food access and awareness, and support a more sustainable and just food system.

Health Departments’ Engagement In Emergency Preparedness Activities: The Influence Of Health Informatics Capacity, Gulzar H. Shah, Bobbie J. Newell, Ruth E. Whitworth

Health Policy and Management Faculty Publications

Background: Local health departments (LHDs) operate in a complex and dynamic public health landscape, with changing demands on their emergency response capacities. Informatics capacities might play an instrumental role in aiding LHDs emergency preparedness. This study aimed to explore the extent to which LHDs’ informatics capacities are associated with their activity level in emergency preparedness and to identify which health informatics capacities are associated with improved emergency preparedness.

Methods: We used the 2013 National Profile of LHDs study to perform Poisson regression of emergency preparedness activities.

Results: Only 38.3% of LHDs participated in full-scale exercises or drills for an emergency …

The Associations Between Environmental Quality And Mortality In The Contiguous United States, 2000-2005, Yun Jian, Lynne C. Messer, Jyotsna S. Jagai, Kristen M. Rappazzo, Christine L. Gray, Shannon C. Grabich, Danelle T. Lobdell

OHSU-PSU School of Public Health Faculty Publications and Presentations

Background: Assessing cumulative effects of the multiple environmental factors influencing mortality remains a challenging task.

Objectives: This study aimed to examine the associations between cumulative environmental quality and all-cause and leading cause-specific (heart disease, cancer, and stroke) mortality rates.

Methods: We used the overall Environmental Quality Index (EQI) and its five domain indices (air, water, land, built and sociodemographic) to represent environmental exposure. Associations between the EQI and mortality rates (CDC WONDER) for counties in the contiguous United States (n=3109) were investigated using multiple linear regression models, and random intercept, random slope hierarchical models. Urbanicity, climate and their combination were …

‘Project Spraoi’: A Randomized Control Trial To Improve Nutrition And Physical Activity In School Children, Tara Coppinger, Seán Lacey, Cian O'Neill, Con Burns

Publications

Background

Recent evidence predicts that by 2030, Ireland will have the highest rate of obesity in Europe. Consequently, there are concerns that health problems associated with this condition will present in childhood. Studies have shown that interventions based on increasing physical activity (PA) levels, reducing sedentary lifestyles and improving nutritional habits all pose protective mechanisms against obesity and its related disorders in youth. Yet, to date, there are no interventions being delivered in Ireland that concurrently target PA, nutritional habits and sedentary time amongst school children.

Purpose

The purpose of this study is to implement and evaluate an intervention that …

Public Health Spending And Its Contributions To The Total Spend On Health, Glen P. Mays

Health Management and Policy Presentations

This presentation provides an overview of recent research on governmental public health expenditures and their interaction with medical spending, carried out through the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation supported initiatives on Public Health Services and Systems Research (PHSSR) and the new Systems for Action research program. This work illustrates the value of tracking resource use across multiple sectors that influence health and well-being in American communities. As such, this work can inform the ongoing dialogue about methodologies for summarizing total health spending for the U.S. and for state and local areas.

Measuring Progress To Comprehensive Public Health Systems, National Preparedness, And A Culture Of Health, Glen P. Mays

Health Management and Policy Presentations

This update describes recent progress on two national health measurement initiatives: The National Health Security Preparedness Index and the National Longitudinal Survey of Public Health Systems. These longitudinal data sources offer valuable perspectives on how health security practices and public health delivery systems are changing across the U.S.

The United Nations Sustainable Development Goals: Achieving The Vision Of Global Health With Justice, Eric A. Friedman, Lawrence O. Gostin

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

We are resolved to free the human race from the tyranny of poverty and want and to heal and secure our planet” (UN General Assembly, 2015, September 25, preamble). So pronounces the 2030 Agenda, the United Nations declaration on the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), adopted on September 25, 2015, succeeding the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). If achieved, the SDGs will secure an improved level of health, development, and global justice. However, if the international community fails to live up to its commitments, an untold number of people will likely perish prematurely, people’s opportunities to thrive will be cut off, social …

Health, Medical Innovation And Disability Insurance: A Case Study Of Hiv Antiretroviral Therapy, Perry Singleton

Center for Policy Research

This study examines the effect of health on SSDI outcomes. The effect is identified by a new antiretroviral therapy to treat the human immunodeficiency virus. Administrative data on SSDI applications come from the Disability Research File. According to the analysis, the new therapy had an immediate and persistent effect on program entry. By 1997, the therapy decreased applications by 35.2 percent and new awards by 36.7 percent. Among existing beneficiaries, the therapy decreased program exits through death, but did not substantially increase program exits for work. By 1999, the therapy increased HIV-related expenditures by $43.6 million.

Learning From Delivery System Behavior, Dynamics & Interactions To Advance A Culture Of Health, Glen P. Mays

Health Management and Policy Presentations

A new "Systems for Action" national research program flows directly from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation's Culture of Health action framework. This program will build evidence on how best to align the delivery and financing systems for medical care, public health, and community services & supports so as to promote wellbeing and resiliency, realize efficiencies in resource use, and reduce inequities in health.

Improving Rhode Island’S Health Care System: Lessons From The Cuban Model, Sarah R. Moffitt

Senior Honors Projects

Improving Rhode Island’s health care system: lessons from the Cuban model

Cuba is world renowned for its health care system. In regards to international health crises, Cuba is a leader in sending workers abroad and training doctors from all over the world. Within its own borders, the Cuban model provides free access to all citizens in which every individual has a primary care provider. Cuba boasts high vaccination rates, a long life expectancy, low infant mortality rate, and a population that is one of the healthiest in the western hemisphere.

The purpose of this research project is to evaluate the …

The Reverberating Risk Of Long-Term Care, Allison K. Hoffman

All Faculty Scholarship

The Fiftieth Anniversary of Medicare and Medicaid offers an opportunity to reflect on how American social policy has conceived of the problem of long-term care. In this essay, based on a longer forthcoming article, I argue that current policies adopt too narrow a conception of long-term care risk, by focusing on the effect of serious illness and disability on people who need care and not on the friends and family who often provide it. I propose a more complete view of long-term care risk that acknowledges how illness and disability reverberates through communities, posing insecurity for people beyond those in …

Health Information Exchange: Growth And Patient Privacy, Niam Yaraghi

Brookings Scholar Lecture Series

Health Information Exchanges (HIE) provide the electronic movement of health-related information among organizations according to nationally recognized standards. The goal of health information exchange is to facilitate access to and retrieval of clinical data to provide safer, timelier, efficient, effective, equitable, patient-centered care. HIEs are becoming integral parts of the national healthcare reform efforts, chiefly owing to their potential impact on cost reduction and quality enhancement in healthcare services. However, the potential of a HIE platform can only be realized when its multiple constituent users actively participate in using its variety of services. In this research, Yaraghi models HIE systems …

Slides: Best Management Practices For Oil And Gas Development And Comparative Water Quality Database Of Regulations Relating To Shale Oil And Gas, Matt Samelson, University Of Colorado Boulder. Getches-Wilkinson Center For Natural Resources, Energy, And The Environment. Intermountain Oil And Gas Bmp Project

Fracking, Water Quality and Public Health: Examining Current Laws and Regulations (March 20)

Presenter: Matt Samelson, J.D., Attorney, Consultant for Intermountain Oil and Gas Best Management Practices (BMP) Project, Getches-Wilkinson Center for Natural Resources, Energy and the Environment, University of Colorado Law School

34 slides

A Healthier Bottom Line: Distilling Best Practices In Corporate Wellness, Mark Auriemma, Cfa, Angela Cassidy, Kelly Dougherty, Despina Garalis, Pharmd, Rph, Judith Pelletier, Jennifer Springer

Emerging Leaders Program Team Projects

The Massachusetts Business Roundtable (MBR) collaborated with a team from the Emerging Leaders Program (ELP) from the University of Massachusetts Boston to explore ways to control health care costs. One strategy being implemented by employers to control health care costs is through “wellness programs,” employer-sponsored efforts to improve the health of employees. Members of the Massachusetts Business Roundtable (MBR) and other large employers have had success in reducing their health care costs through the implementation of corporate wellness initiatives. The purpose of this paper is to define what is working in private sector wellness programs to determine whether there is …