Health Economics Commons^™

Health System Contributions To Public Health Activities Amid Policy And Economic Change: Estimating Complementarities, Substitutions, And Network Effects, Glen P. Mays

Health Management and Policy Presentations

Research Objective: The Affordable Care Act created new incentives for hospitals, insurers, employers, public health agencies, and others to contribute to activities designed to promote health and prevent disease an injury, potentially changing the structure of public health delivery systems and expanding the delivery of strategies that improve population health. At the same time, the economic recession has constrained government and private sector spending on health and health care, necessitating changes in the scope and scale of public health delivery. This study uses data from the 1998-2012 National Longitudinal Survey of Public Health Systems to examine: (1) the extent and …

Hospital Contributions To Public Health Activities Before And After Aca: Incentives, Constraints & Crowd-Out, Glen P. Mays

Health Management and Policy Presentations

Research Objective: The Affordable Care Act created enhanced IRS requirements for not-for-profit hospitals regarding the provision of community benefits, potentially stimulating new approaches to community health needs assessment, priority setting, and engagement with public health agencies and other community stakeholders. Yet the economic downturn has constrained hospital earnings and increased demand for uncompensated care, potentially crowding out hospital contributions to public health activities. This study uses data from 1998-2012 on a national cohort of communities to examine: (1) the extent and nature of change in hospital contributions to public health activities; and (2) the economic, institutional, and policy-related factors that …

Analyzing Return On Investment In Public Health: Implications And Future Directions, Glen P. Mays

Health Management and Policy Presentations

Return on investment (ROI) analyses of public health programs, policies, and services are being undertaken with increasing frequency to provide assessments of the value of these activities. This presentation reviews current initiatives and future directions for improving the quality of ROI studies and their application to real-world public health policy and administrative decisions.

Harnessing The Power Of Public Health Systems For Injury Prevention & Control, Glen P. Mays

Health Management and Policy Presentations

Efforts to improve population health hinge on a vast yet diffuse constellation of government agencies, health care providers, and community organizations that assume responsibilities in implementing prevention programs and policies across the U.S. Realizing the full health and economic benefits of injury prevention and control initiatives requires mobilizing and managing these complex and heterogeneous public health delivery systems. This session will explore the emerging science of public health delivery systems and what it tells us about improving injury prevention and control amid policy and economic change.

Public Health Delivery Systems And Population Health, Glen P. Mays

Health Management and Policy Presentations

Despite high overall health expenditures, the U.S. continues to fall behind other high-income countries on many measures of population health. While health care delivery systems are now studied intensively for solutions to U.S. cost and quality problems, the nation's delivery systems for public health programs and policies are only now becoming the subject of rigorous empirical study. This presentation examines recent studies of public health delivery systems and important directions for future inquiry.

Estimating Return On Investment: Approaches And Methods, Glen P. Mays

Health Management and Policy Presentations

Continuing fiscal constraints in the public sector and large-scale policy changes associated with health reform implementation in the U.S. are giving heightened attention to questions about the health and economic value of public health programs, services, and policies -- strategies designed to protect health and prevent disease and injury on a population-wide basis. This session provides an overview of approaches for conducting return-on-investment (ROI) analyses and related economic evaluation studies in public health settings in order to inform policy and administrative decision-making. New opportunities and resources created through CDC's National Public Health Improvement Initiative (NPHII) and RWJF's Public Health Practice-based …

Optimizing The Value Of Public Health Services: Lessons From Research & Practice, Glen P. Mays

Health Management and Policy Presentations

Expanding the delivery of efficacious public health programs and policies holds considerable potential for improving population health and constraining the growth in health care spending. Achieving such expansions efficiently, particularly in low-resource settings, requires careful attention to interorganizational and intergovernmental relationships in public health delivery.

Next Generation Public Health Delivery: Optimizing Health And Economic Impact, Glen P. Mays

Health Management and Policy Presentations

Improving population health in the context of significant policy and economic change will require governmental public health agencies to rethink their roles within the U.S. health and social services systems, giving much greater attention to "catalytic" functions intended to mobilize, direct, and coordinate the actions of others. A growing body of evidence and experience suggests that such changes are likely to be feasible, effective, and efficient.

Managing Social Security Disability & Other Public Benefits: Development Of A Guide For Consumers And Providers, Stephanie L. Derochers

Muskie School Capstones and Dissertations

One in five Americans has a disability, making it the largest minority group in the U.S. (Soffer, McDonald, & Blanck, 2010). In 2011, 13.4 million working-aged adults received a disability cash benefit from the Social Security Administration (Kregel, 2012).

The Social Security Administration (SSA) is the federal agency responsible for managing, executing and overseeing retirement, survivor, old-age and disability benefits. There are over 1,500 Social Security offices and over 65,000 employees nationwide (SSA, 2013). SSA manages at least five disability benefit programs: Supplemental Security Income (SSI), Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI), Disabled Widow(er) Benefit (DWB), Childhood Disability Benefit (CDB), though …

The Value Of Public Health Financial Data, Glen P. Mays

Health Management and Policy Presentations

Effective policy and administrative decision-making in public health requires reliable information on the amount of resources invested in governmental public health programs and how these resouces are allocated and used across the U.S. public health system. This session examines current and potential uses of public health financial data in the U.S., and considers expanded roles for research in informing policy and administrative decisions.

Explaining Political Activeness And Attitudes Toward Unionization Among Nurses In The United States., Crystal L. Lesmeister

Political Science Theses and Capstones

There is no question; nurses play a key role in healthcare. Nurses provide direct care, coordinate health promotion activities, educate, and provide support and advocacy to patients. Today, there are over two million registered nurses in the United States. My research aims to determine the variables that influence some nurses to be more politically active and more engaged in unionization than their counterparts. I analyze The National Sample Survey of Registered Nurses 2004 looking at a variety of potential explanations for union participation. Findings show a strong regional variation in the percentage of unionization, however, some of the conventional explanations …

Vital Statistics: The State Of The Public Health Pbrn Program, Glen P. Mays

Health Management and Policy Presentations

The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation's Public Health PBRN Program has continued to expand during the 2013 program year with new networks, new research projects, and expanded translation and dissemination initiatives. The program plays an increasingly powerful role in helping to transform the U.S. public health enterprise into a rapid-learning system for health improvement.

Testing Integrated Primary Care And Public Health Models For Prevention Delivery, Glen P. Mays

Health Management and Policy Presentations

Improving the delivery of evidence-tested prevention interventions to populations at greatest risk requires strong coordination between primary care providers and public health organizations. This presentation reviews current research on models for integrated delivery of primary care and public health services, and identifies emerging research needs and opportunities. Of particular interest are the roles that practice-based research networks (PBRNs) can play in building this evidence.

Public Health Roi: Evidence, Experience And Remaining Questions, Glen P. Mays

Health Management and Policy Presentations

Expanding the delivery of efficacious public health and prevention strategies holds considerable potential for improving health outcomes and constraining costs across the U.S. health system. Unfortunately, lingering certainties about the costs required to expand public health delivery systems and about the health and economic effects of such expansions has muted private and public support for increased public health expenditures. This lecture examines recent evidence from public health services and systems research studies that examine the health and economic value of public health delivery, and identifies remaining research needs for the field.

[Sabbatical Report], Claudia Strow

Sabbatical Reports

This document summarizes my sabbatical leave activities for spring semester, 2014. Below my accomplishments are discussed, and the value of the sabbatical leave to my teaching and research is assessed. The main activities I conducted during my sabbatical leave period included work on a new research project examining FMLA's impact on breastfeeding, the writing of a second edition of a textbook, substantial revisions for an accepted publication for the Journal of 'Markets and Morality, a revise and resubmit of a manuscript for the Journal of Applied Economics and Public Policy, an interview for Voice of America, the presentation of a …

Cost Estimation Methods: Strategies And Examples For Public Health Services & Systems Research, Glen P. Mays

Health Management and Policy Presentations

This webinar reviews methods for conducting cost studies in public health settings, including strategies for estimating the financial and ecnomic costs of delivering public health services, and analytic approaches to identifying factors that influence delivery costs. These types of studies are of increasing importance to policy and practice stakeholders given the need for evidence about the return-on-investment (ROI) generated through public health delivery.

Accelerating And Expanding Knowledge Transfer In Public Health Settings: Frontiers In Phssr, Glen P. Mays

Health Management and Policy Presentations

Creating a "rapid-learning" system in public health requires mechanisms for the continuous exchange of knowledge and evidence among researchers, practice settings, and policy decision-makers. The open-access platform Frontiers in Public Health Services and Systems Research provides a new mechanism for this exchange.

Building The Science Of Public Health Delivery: Advances In Public Health Services And Systems Research, Glen P. Mays

Health Management and Policy Presentations

Efforts to improve the health and economic performance of the U.S. health system require evidence about how best to deliver public health strategies that protect health and prevent disease and injury on a population-wide basis. The field of public health services and systems research is building a "science of delivery" in public health that complements the evidence-based practice movement in medical care.

Public Health Delivery Systems And Population Health: What We Know And Need To Learn, Glen P. Mays

Health Management and Policy Presentations

Despite high overall health expenditures, the U.S. continues to fall behind other high-income countries on many measures of population health. While health care delivery systems are now studied intensively for solutions to U.S. cost and quality problems, the nation's delivery systems for public health programs and policies are only now becoming the subject of rigorous empirical study. This presentation examines recent studies of public health delivery systems and important directions for future inquiry.

Estimating The Health And Economic Effects Of Public Health Spending, Glen P. Mays

Health Management and Policy Presentations

Preventable health conditions account for more than 75% of the $2.7 trillion spent annually on health care in the U.S., yet less than 5% of these expenditures are devoted to public health programs and services that are designed to prevent and control disease and injury rather than to treat the downstream consequences of these conditions. Such limited expenditures in public health may contribute to the higher rates of preventable morbidity, mortality and excess medical costs experienced in the U.S. compared to other high-income countries. In this presentation, I update previous estimates of the health effects and medical cost offsets associated …