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.
Research conducted by:
RAND Health;
Military Health Policy Research;
RAND Europe;
RAND Drug Policy Research Center;
RAND Justice, Infrastructure, and Environment;
RAND Labor and Population;
RAND Gulf States Policy Institute
Featured at RAND
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.
Research Briefs (326)
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.
This brief summarizes a RAND analysis of the role of that hospital emergency departments may come to play in either contributing to or reducing the rising costs of health care.
This infographic presents findings from a RAND analysis of the economic and other effects of Medicaid expansion on the commonwealth of Pennsylvania.
RAND Europe co-led an evaluation of 16 varied pilot projects initiated by the Department of Health (England) as a means to explore new ways of integrating patient care from different local provider.
This infographic presents findings from a RAND analysis of the economic and other effects of the Affordable Care Act on the state of Arkansas.
The Helping Families Raise Healthy Children initiative addressed depression among parents of children with early childhood developmental delays, aligning the early intervention and behavioral health systems with a focus on relationship-based care.
South Dakota's 24/7 Sobriety Project, in which individuals with alcohol-involved offenses submit to breathalyzer tests twice per day or wear an alcohol monitoring bracelet at all times, reduced repeat DUI arrests at the county level by 12 percent.
RAND Health research supports four strategies to restrain health care spending growth and maintain quality: foster efficient and accountable providers, engage and empower consumers, promote population health, and facilitate high-value innovation.
Providers can dramatically improve American health care by focusing on value instead of volume, eliminating wasteful and inappropriate care, applying the best available evidence to their practices, and enhancing patient safety.
Cost-sharing leads consumers to reduce both highly beneficial and less beneficial care, so they must be empowered with useful information to make informed decisions. Public cost and quality reports must be accurate, accessible, and understandable.
Reversing the rising tide of obesity and further reducing rates of tobacco use could produce substantial long-term dividends in terms of lives saved and disabling illnesses prevented. Communities, employers, and parents all have important roles.
Health information technology has not achieved its full potential, but its benefits should grow over time. Because health care is largely regulated at the state level, the states can play a valuable role as laboratories for innovative policies.
This research brief summarises the key findings from a review of biomedical research ethics.
This research brief summarises the key findings of a literature review of grant peer review in the health sciences.
The DISMEVAL consortium examined approaches to chronic disease management and its evaluation in 13 countries across Europe. The project identified and validated evaluation methods that can be used in situations where randomisation is not possible.
Analyses indicated that although physicians uniformly felt responsible for assessing and promoting adherence to prescriptions, only a minority of them asked detailed questions about adherence.
If half of Americans with employer-sponsored insurance switched from a traditional health plan to a consumer-directed health plan, annual health care costs would fall by an estimated $57 billion.
Describes options for Department of Defense policy that would help the reserve components of the U.S. military achieve higher levels of individual medical readiness, including dental readiness.
Current initiatives to report health care provider costs are unlikely to motivate consumers to select lower-cost providers. Public reports could better engage consumers by focusing on out-of-pocket costs and high-value providers.
A team from RAND and the University HealthSystem Consortium developed a toolkit to help hospitals enhance their quality improvement efforts using quality indicators from the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality.
RAND® is a registered trademark. Copyright © 1994-2013 RAND Corporation.