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Health, Health Care, and Aging

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RAND advances understanding of health and health behaviors, and examines how the organization and financing of care affect costs, quality, and access. Our body of research includes innovative studies of health insurance, health care reform, and health information technology, as well as obesity, substance abuse, and PTSD. RAND findings also help inform policies that aim to improve the health of seniors and the care they receive.

News Release
Care Experiences Are Worse in For-Profit Hospices Than in Not-for-Profit Hospices
Family caregivers of patients treated by more than 3,100 U.S. hospices reported worse care experiences on average from for-profit hospices across all of the domains assessed, including help for pain and getting timely care.
Feb 27, 2023
Report
The Benefits of Mental Health First Aid Training
More than 155,000 New Yorkers were trained in Mental Health First Aid between 2016 and 2020. They learned how to be active listeners, to provide reassurance and information, and to encourage professional care when appropriate. Most of the trainees ended up using their MHFA skills to support others and their own well-being.
Feb 7, 2023

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Journal Article
Impact of Telephone Triage on Access to Primary Care for People Living with Multiple Long-Term Health Conditions: Rapid Evaluation
We aimed to evaluate whether or not the increased use of telephone triage would affect access to primary care differently for people living with multimorbidity than for other patients.
Aug 12, 2022
Commentary
In Search of an Equity Lens: A Physician's Journey
Patient health outcomes, communication with providers, and overall patient satisfaction improve when patients and providers share a similar background. Further, diverse work environments may positively impact health care provider job satisfaction. Increasing diversity in health care work settings is a first important step that could help to increase equity and inclusion in these environments.
Aug 11, 2022
Commentary
Will Teachers Quit? What Surveys Can and Can't Tell Us
There is no single source for reliable current data about teacher and principal turnover or job openings, so it's understandable that journalists rely on survey data to monitor the health of the teacher and principal workforce. But media coverage that focuses only on the connection, or lack thereof, between teachers' intentions to leave and actual turnover stands the risk of minimizing the clearly stated dissatisfaction that educators are expressing.
Aug 11, 2022
Commentary
Educators' Poor Morale Matters, Even If They Don't Quit. Here's Why
State and district education leaders can take steps now to reduce teacher and principal stress this fall in two ways: Recognize that job-related stress is systemic and that educators closer to the classroom may experience more of it, and talk with teachers and principals about the sources of stress in their job, and what could alleviate them.
Aug 11, 2022
Journal Article
Estimated Wasteful Spending on Aducanumab Dispensing in the U.S. Medicare Population: A Cross-Sectional Analysis
Aducanumab, a weight-dosed Alzheimer's drug, is available in two fixed-dose vial sizes. This may result in large amounts of discarded drug and wasteful spending. More-efficient vial sizes could save Medicare money if the drug is approved for widespread use.
Aug 11, 2022
Announcement
James P. Smith, Economist and Former Director of RAND's Labor and Population Studies Program, Dies at 79
James P. Smith, an economist and expert on aging who directed the Labor and Population studies program at the RAND Corporation for nearly two decades, shaping a research agenda that focused on domestic labor markets, demographic trends in the United States, and economic development in developing countries, died on August 4. He was 79.
Aug 10, 2022
Report
Educators' Views on Politicized Topics in School
A survey in January 2022 asked educators about policies for COVID-19 safety in schools and classroom conversations about race, racism, or bias. Almost half of principals and 40 percent of teachers reported that the intrusion of political issues and opinions added stress to their jobs.
Aug 10, 2022
Tool
RAND HRS Longitudinal File 2018 (V2) Documentation: Includes 1992-2018 (Final Release)
This tool is a cleaned, easy-to-use, and streamlined data product containing information from the Health and Retirement Study, a longitudinal household survey that facilitates research into different aspects of population aging in the United States.
Aug 9, 2022
Report
Does Racism Affect Patient Safety?
Rates and types of patient safety events vary across patients from different racial and ethnic backgrounds, with minoritized patients more likely to experience safety issues. The factors that lead to these disparities are complex and intertwined, but there is growing sentiment that racism may play a role.
Aug 8, 2022
Blog
Our New CEO, Algorithmic Bias, Equity in the Workplace: RAND Weekly Recap
This weekly recap focuses on what RAND’s new president and CEO envisions for the future, addressing bias in health care algorithms, creating equitable change in the workplace, and more.
Aug 5, 2022
Testimony
Health Care Affordability: State Policy Options to Control Costs
When the costs to provide employer-sponsored health insurance increase, it burdens workers and their families. What are some potential policy options to address these high costs, particularly in markets like Texas where 48 percent of people have health insurance through an employer or union?
Aug 4, 2022
Commentary
How Policies That Punish Pregnant Women Backfire
There is overwhelming evidence and consensus from the medical and public health communities that supportive approaches are what help pregnant women with substance use disorders. Unfortunately, the overturning of Roe v. Wade has opened the door for more policies that police and punish women rather than these solutions that can save lives.
Aug 2, 2022
Journal Article
Legal Review of State Emergency Medical Services Policies and Protocols for Naloxone Administration
We provide data on the authority of providers at different emergency medical services licensure levels to administer naloxone. We also describe relevant policies regarding which administration routes and dosages are permitted for each licensure level.
Aug 2, 2022
Commentary
Seven Ways to Build a Truly Equitable DEI Strategy
Despite growth in diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) roles worldwide, not much has changed with the power structure in DEI spaces, which still center on the C-suite and tend to be populated with groups that are less knowledgeable on research in DEI. Here are seven strategies for building a more-equitable DEI program.
Aug 1, 2022
News Release
Predicting Patients' Race and Ethnicity Can Improve Equity in Health Care Delivery
Algorithms designed to guide medical care can contribute to racially inequitable outcomes, but eliminating information about patient race and ethnicity as an input to algorithms is not the right way to address the issue.
Aug 1, 2022
Multimedia
Addressing Homelessness Among Individuals Incarcerated in Los Angeles County
This video provides an overview of the RAND study that evaluated impact and costs of the Just in Reach Pay for Success program.
Aug 1, 2022
Blog
Talking to Russia, Racial Bias, Mine-Hunting Dolphins: RAND Weekly Recap
This weekly recap focuses on preventing escalation of the war in Ukraine, how racial bias compounds over time, why the Navy should stick with its mine-hunting dolphins, and more.
Jul 29, 2022
Journal Article
How Much Illegally Manufactured Fentanyl Could the U.S. Be Consuming?
This article provides guidance through two thought experiments that provide a hypothetical upper bound on U.S. consumption of fentanyl.
Jul 28, 2022
Journal Article
Playing Defense? Health Care in the Era of Covid
This paper presents evidence that the quality of health care interactions changed in important ways during the early months of the Covid-19 pandemic.
Jul 28, 2022
Multimedia
Addressing Vaccine Hesitancy with Research
RAND senior physician policy researcher Courtney Gidengil reveals the biggest driver behind the hesitancy to receive the COVID-19 vaccine.
Jul 26, 2022

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RAND Topic:
Health, Health Care, and Aging

Research conducted by

Researcher Spotlight

Courtney Ann Kase

Policy Analyst

Courtney Ann Kase is a policy analyst at the RAND Corporation. She has experience in program evaluation, qualitative research, and project management. Kase is currently working on evaluation of community-based behavioral health centers' mental health and physical health service integration under…
Dana Schultz

Senior Policy Researcher

Dana Schultz (she/her) is a senior policy researcher at the RAND Corporation. She has extensive experience in research and evaluation design, implementation and outcomes evaluations, quantitative and qualitative methodologies, developmental and participatory evaluation approaches, and…

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