Access to health care usually refers to the ease with which an individual can gain entry to or receive needed medical services. RAND research addresses multiple dimensions of access, including: financial access, usually facilitated through health insurance; potential access, usually aided by having a regular health care provider; and realized access, when an individual actually receives needed medical care. Many RAND studies have also examined disparities in access across different population groups and the effect of disparities on health.
This analysis found a significant association among higher long-term unemployment, higher mental health clinician shortage areas, and higher county-level rates of neonatal abstinence syndrome.
Newborns exposed to opioids before birth can experience withdrawal symptoms known as neonatal abstinence syndrome (NAS). From 2009 to 2015, the average NAS rate per 1,000 hospital births across eight states rose from about six to more than 25.
Testimony submitted to the Senate Committee on Veterans' Affairs on April 10, 2019.
Technology-enabled collaborative learning and capacity-building models connect generalist providers, often located in remote areas, with specialist teams that help train these providers so that they can deliver care for conditions that generalists might not otherwise feel adequately prepared to handle. This report focuses on the quality of evidence for the effectiveness of such models and describes ways to improve measurement of effectiveness.
Despite telehealth's potential to improve access to care, it is underutilized by safety-net providers, including Federally Qualified Health Centers (FQHCs), due to a range of policy, organizational, and logistical barriers. This research facilitates state-to-state learning to inform both Medicaid policy and Medicare policy going forward and provide lessons learned for FQHCs interested in starting or expanding telehealth programs.
The state of California has taken the lead in developing metrics, standards, and a methodology for collecting the needed data for monitoring timely access to health care, but health plans have faced numerous challenges in collecting and reporting this information. This report focuses on specific concerns with the methodology; the authors use a multipronged approach to describe and document these issues and identify and assess potential solutions.
This paper presents findings from a qualitative study examining the impact of the Medicaid Balancing Incentive Program. The analysis in this paper examines factors associated with rural disparities in access to home and community-based services.
The 33 studies reviewed identify multiple workforce-related challenges for families seeking treatment for children with autism spectrum disorder-including lack of primary care providers to serve these children, lack of specialty providers, and sociodemographic and geographic disparities in access to ASD services.
Beneficiaries who are dually enrolled in Medicare and Medicaid are less likely to be enrolled in Medicare Advantage (MA) plans that perform well in the MA Star Rating program than non–dually enrolled beneficiaries. The authors identify the types of services that MA plans implement to meet the needs of dually enrolled and other high-cost, high-need beneficiaries, as well as the types of resources needed to implement these services.
This interim report presents preliminary implementation and impact evaluation findings for New York City's Connections to Care program, which seeks to expand access to mental health support for low-income New Yorkers through a task shifting model delivered by community-based organizations. This report also describes study methods and the baseline sample for the impact evaluation at the time of writing.
Many Los Angeles-area African American churches provide recovery supports and services for alcohol and other drug (AOD) use and actively connect individuals to formal AOD treatment.
Since 1965, Federally Qualified Health Centers have provided a safety net for the uninsured and major source of care to those enrolled in public health insurance programs. The distinguishing characteristic of the program is the concept of community governance in achieving the main objective to provide holistic, comprehensive, and culturally competent primary care to low-income and medically underserved areas.
