RAND advances understanding of health and health behaviors and examines how the organization and financing of care affect costs, quality, and access. RAND's body of research—conducted primarily through the RAND Health division—includes innovative studies of health insurance, health care reform, health information technology, and women's health, as well as topical concerns such as obesity, complementary and alternative medicine, and PTSD in veterans and survivors of catastrophe.
With the complex process of implementing the ACA underway, RAND research is tracking the progress of implementation and assessing the potential consequences of choices facing federal and state governments, employers, families, and individuals.
In its second term, the Obama Administration can restrain further health care spending growth—without compromising quality—by employing four broad strategies: fostering efficient and accountable providers, engaging and empowering consumers, promoting population health, and facilitating high-value innovation.
Event
A RAND Policy Forum will address women's health, heart health, and the potential effects of gender on health with speakers Chloe Bird, Amanda Daniels, and Karol Watson.
Commentary
Because of the ACA's regulations, some smaller employers with young and healthy workers are considering avoiding the purchase of health care coverage in the regulated market, opting instead to self-insure their employees.
Journal Article
Older individuals' health and changes in health are more strongly correlated with persistence of and changes in care-seeking behavior over time than are financial status and changes in financial status.
Project
The BORN Study examines efforts to improve maternal and infant health in Nigeria, where more than 250,000 infants die each year. BORN findings could have wide-ranging impact on health in the region.
Report
States that choose not to expand Medicaid under federal health care reform will leave millions of their residents without health insurance and increase spending, at least in the short term, on the cost of treating uninsured residents.
Report
U.S. safety performance at refineries has not been good by international standards. However, Cal-OSHA inspections of refineries typically find so few hazards that they contribute relatively little to refinery safety.
Commentary
It was widely assumed that Atlanta's Grady Memorial Hospital would be the next storied public hospital close its doors, but at its darkest hour, it received help from an unexpected quarter, says Art Kellermann.
Research Brief
Summarizes a RAND analysis of how opting out of Medicaid expansion would affect insurance coverage and spending and whether alternative policy options -- such as partial Medicaid expansion -- could cover as many people at lower costs to states.
Journal Article
Using the example of the Los Angeles County Community Disaster Resilience Project, we discuss our experience and perspective from a large urban county to better understand how to implement a community resilience framework in public health practice.
Journal Article
The findings highlighted opportunities for engaging communities in disaster preparedness and informed the development of a community action plan and toolkit.
Journal Article
A steering council used community-partnered participatory research to support workgroups in developing CR action plans and hosted forums for input to design a pilot demonstration of implementing CR versus enhanced individual preparedness toolkits.
Blog
The dependent coverage provision of the Affordable Care Act is working as intended, say Andrew Mulcahy and Katherine Harris. In 2011, it spared individuals and hospitals from $147 million in emergency room costs.
Report
Physician payment policy is shifting from one that incentivizes the delivery of more services without regard to quality or outcomes to one that incentivizes the delivery of high quality, resource conscious health care. Thoughtful incentive design can ease the transition process for both physicians and the Medicare program.
News Release
Bariatric surgery for diabetic people who are not severely obese has shown promising results in controlling glucose, but more information is needed about the long-term benefits and risks before recommending bariatric surgery over non-surgical weight-loss treatment for these individuals.
Journal Article
Bariatric surgery for diabetic people who are not severely obese has shown promising results in controlling glucose, but more information is needed about the long-term benefits and risks before recommending bariatric surgery over non-surgical weight-loss treatment for these individuals.
Report
The report reviews approaches to pharmaceutical pricing in Canada, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands and Spain to inform better understanding of the role of external reference pricing and its relevance to the UK.
News Release
States that choose not to expand Medicaid under federal health care reform will leave millions of their residents without health insurance and increase spending on the cost of treating uninsured residents, at least in the short term.
Journal Article
States that choose not to expand Medicaid under federal health care reform will leave millions of their residents without health insurance and increase spending on the cost of treating uninsured residents, at least in the short term.
Journal Article
Most CA hospitals have adopted financial assistance policies to provide more affordable care for the uninsured. Ninety-seven percent of hospitals say they offer free care to uninsured patients with incomes at or below the federal poverty level.
Journal Article
Findings suggest that effective coping with both internal and external sexual stigma is central to the psychological well-being and social engagement of men who have sex with men in Beirut, much as has been found in Western gay communities.
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