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Health Care Access

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Access to health care refers to the ease with which an individual can obtain needed medical services. RAND research has examined the social, cultural, economic, and geographic factors that influence health care access worldwide; the effects of changes in access; and the relationship between access and health for specific U.S. populations—including racial and ethnic minorities, people with limited English proficiency, the uninsured, the elderly, children, and veterans.

Commentary

Why ACA Enrollees Need Support After They Sign Up

Oct 11, 2017

Providing support for Affordable Care Act enrollees to connect with care they are happy with can help minimize the risk that they will stop seeking routine health care.
Report

Repealing or Replacing ACA Would Result in More Uninsured Veterans and Stress on VA Health System

Sep 14, 2017

Recent congressional proposals to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act would increase the number of uninsured nonelderly veterans and further increase demand for VA health care. The effects would vary across states, but the largest impacts would be felt in states that expanded Medicaid.

Explore Health Care Access

Journal Article

Opening School-Based Health Clinics Can Lower Teacher Health Costs

Opening onsite health clinics to provide comprehensive primary care to teachers and their families can lower a school district's health care costs and decrease teacher absenteeism.

Jul 3, 2018
Journal Article

Journal Article

Veteran Experiences Seeking Non-pharmacologic Approaches for Pain

Veterans are interested in complementary non-pharmacologic approaches to manage pain but they cite a range of barriers to access, including poor communication with providers and poor care coordination.

Jun 1, 2018
Report

Patient-Centered Medical Home Implementation in Indian Health Service Direct Service Facilities

In 2008, the Indian Health Service launched a patient-centered medical home (PCMH) initiative to improve the quality of care in its clinics. RAND researchers identified barriers and strategies to assist clinics on the path to PCMH recognition.

May 25, 2018
Testimony

Three Goals for Developing a Suicide Prevention Plan for California

As California seeks to develop a suicide prevention plan, it should keep three goals in mind: Provide better care to those known to be at risk, identify more at-risk individuals who could benefit from services, and create safer environments designed to prevent suicide.

May 24, 2018
Commentary

'This Is Us' Season Finale Offers an Important Public Health Lesson

The TV series “This Is Us” shows how health is not only affected by individuals' decisions, but also by the larger contexts in which they live. These social determinants of health include income, quality of housing, and access to health care.

Mar 23, 2018
News Release

News Release

Few Civilian Health Providers in New York Ready to Provide Timely, Quality Care to Veterans

Only about 2 percent of the physicians and other health care providers in New York State are equipped to provide timely and quality care to veterans in the community.

Mar 1, 2018
Research Brief

Are Private Health Care Providers Ready to Treat Veterans? Evidence from New York State

This brief highlights key findings of a RAND survey of providers in New York State regarding the preparedness of community providers (i.e., not affiliated with the Department of Veterans Affairs) to treat veterans.

Mar 1, 2018
Report

Are New York Health Providers Ready to Meet Veterans' Needs?

Few civilian health providers in New York are ready to provide timely, quality care to veterans. More than 90 percent of providers were accepting new patients. But only about 2 percent met all criteria for effectively serving veterans.

Mar 1, 2018
Commentary

How VR and AR Could Transform the Health Sector

Immersive technologies such as virtual and augmented reality allow users to behave how they would in the real world, but in an artificial environment. Both technologies can help train medical professionals, deliver health services and improve the health outcomes of NHS users. But they also risk displacing workers in the health sector.

Feb 20, 2018
Dissertation

Dissertation

The Impact of Nurse Practitioner Scope-of-Practice Regulations in Primary Care

The dissertation assesses the impact of nurse practitioner scope-of-practice regulations in primary care.

Feb 14, 2018
Journal Article

Journal Article

The Great American Recession and Forgone Healthcare: Do Widened Disparities Between African-Americans and Whites Remain?

Since the end of the Great Recession, disparities in the likelihood of forgone care have increased from pre-recession levels between African-Americans and whites; this may be a result of issues related to access, cost, and quality.

Feb 13, 2018
Journal Article

Journal Article

Recruiting Rural Healthcare Providers Today: A Systematic Review of Training Program Success and Determinants of Geographic Choices

Exposing medical students and residents to rural practice during their training is a promising approach to addressing the shortfall of providers in rural communities.

Jan 24, 2018
Journal Article

Journal Article

Health Care at Birth and Infant Mortality: Evidence from Nighttime Deliveries in Nigeria

Ensuring that Nigerian women giving birth have access to health facilities will likely reduce infant mortality.

Dec 29, 2017
Journal Article

Journal Article

Comparative Effectiveness of Two Models of Depression Services Quality Improvement in Health and Community Sectors

Community coalition building may increase use of health care services for depression.

Dec 18, 2017
Journal Article

Journal Article

Evaluation of the Impact of the European Union's Research Funding for Poverty-Related and Neglected Diseases: Lessons from EU Research Funding (1998-2013)

The overarching aim of this work is to evaluate the role of R&D on PRNDs in contributing to achieving UHC and improving population health in low- and middle-income countries.

Dec 15, 2017
Journal Article

Journal Article

Randomized Controlled Trial of a Coordinated Care Intervention to Improve Risk Factor Control After Stroke or Transient Ischemic Attack in the Safety Net: Secondary Stroke Prevention by Uniting Community and Chronic Care Model Teams Early to End Disparities (SUCCEED)

A multi-disciplinary intervention using a Chronic Care Model framework to prevent a secondary stroke among underserved populations will be tested in a randomized controlled trial.

Dec 12, 2017
News Release

News Release

U.S. Health Care System Unprepared to Move Future Alzheimer's Treatment into Rapid Clinical Use

The U.S. health care system lacks the capacity to rapidly move a treatment for Alzheimer's disease from approval into wide clinical use, a shortcoming that could leave millions of people without access to transformative care if such a breakthrough occurs.

Nov 15, 2017
Infographic

When Alzheimer's Drugs Arrive, How Prepared Will We Be to Meet Demand? An Assessment of U.S. Health Care Infrastructure

Drugs to halt the progression of Alzheimer's disease may be available by 2020, but millions of U.S. patients might have to wait more than 14 months for initial appointments in the multistep process unless health care system capacity is increased.

Nov 15, 2017
Report

U.S. Health System Should Prepare for Future Alzheimer's Treatments

The U.S. health care system isn't ready to meet demand for a breakthrough Alzheimer's treatment. Results from clinical trials are producing guarded optimism that a breakthrough could arrive as early as 2020. If this happens, up to 2.1 million patients could develop Alzheimer's dementia by 2040 while on treatment and evaluation waiting lists.

Nov 15, 2017
Blog

When RAND Applied Weapons Research to Health Care Delivery

In the 1970s, it was assumed that new physicians wouldn't set up practice in America's small towns. RAND economists used software originally designed to estimate damages from a nuclear bomb to calculate the effects of placing doctors in specific locations.

Nov 1, 2017

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RAND Topic:
Health Care Access

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