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Southwestern States

News Release

California Rules to Limit Surprise Medical Bills Are Working, but Influence Insurer-Provider Bargaining

A California law that limits the size of bills from out-of-network physicians for care delivered in hospitals appears to be protecting patients' financial liability. But it has shifted bargaining leverage in favor of insurance plans and had potential unintended consequences.

Aug 12, 2019
Report

Forensic Familial and Moderate Stringency DNA Searches: Policies and Practices in the United States, England, and Wales

Forensic DNA databases help solve crimes. When an exact DNA match is not found, familial DNA and moderate stringency search may provide investigative leads. Evidence-based practices can guide policymakers on the use and effectiveness of this method.

Aug 12, 2019
Report

Report

Los Angeles County Office of Diversion and Reentry's Supportive Housing Program: A Study of Participants' Housing Stability and New Felony Convictions

Los Angeles County is home to the largest jail system in the world and an acute homelessness problem. This report presents generally favorable early interim findings about an initiative that provides housing coupled with case management.

Jul 25, 2019
Commentary

Allocating Costs for California Wildfires

Wildfires in California have caused and will likely continue to cause substantial losses for residents, businesses, and government agencies. It is important to distribute these losses in a manner that provides incentives to reduce their magnitude over time.

Jul 24, 2019
Report

Results of the Co-Design of Services for Health and Reentry (CO-SHARE) Study

Individuals returning to the community from jail often face difficulties accessing services that improve reentry and reduce recidivism. RAND reviewed a pilot study in Los Angeles County, the Co-Design of Services for Health and Reentry (CO-SHARE), that encouraged returning individuals and service providers to collaborate on improving health and reentry services.

Jul 24, 2019
Report

Options for Improving Timely Access to Care Reporting in California

The state of California has developed standards for monitoring timely access to health care, but health plans face challenges in collecting and reporting the information. This report documents these challenges and identifies potential solutions.

Jul 8, 2019
Report

Report

Access to Medical Treatment for Injured Workers in California: Year 3 Annual Report

The key objective of this third report in a three-part series is to describe access to medical care among injured workers in California using medical billing data from Version 2.0 of the Workers' Compensation Information System.

Jun 21, 2019
News Release

Young Adults Who Live Near Medical Marijuana Dispensaries Use Marijuana More Often, Have More-Positive Views

Young adults who live in neighborhoods with more medical marijuana dispensaries use marijuana more frequently than their peers and have more-positive views about the drug. The associations were strongest among young adults who lived near dispensaries that had storefront signs.

Jun 17, 2019
News Release

News Release

Smaller City Effort to Aid Chronically Homeless Has Success, Cuts Use of Municipal Services

Creating a municipally funded team to provide intensive services to chronically homeless people who use a large amount of public services can help the individuals get off the streets, while also reducing spending on services such as police services and emergency medical care.

Jun 5, 2019
Report

Local Effort Reduces Homelessness and Use of City Services

A program that provided people experiencing chronic homelessness with housing, health care, and other services helped them get off the streets and reduced spending on public services, such as emergency medical care.

Jun 5, 2019
News Release

Using Cannabis and Tobacco/Nicotine Together Is Linked to Heavier Use and Poorer Functioning Among Young Adults

More than a third of young adults report using both cannabis and tobacco or nicotine products, providing a unique challenge to public health officials as cannabis is legalized in more jurisdictions.

Apr 29, 2019
Dissertation

Dissertation

The Criminal Justice System and More Lenient Drug Policy: Three Case Studies on California's Changes to How Its Criminal Justice System Addresses Drug Use

Explores California's recent liberal policies, mostly associated to drug-related crimes, to provide implications for future policymaking.

Apr 15, 2019
News Release

News Release

Seismic Safety Upgrades May Cost California Hospitals Billions, Increase Number of Hospitals in Financial Distress

After the 1994 Northridge Earthquake, in which 11 hospitals were damaged and eight were evacuated, California adopted SB1953, which aims to improve hospital resilience to seismic events. The law requires hospitals to reduce their buildings' risk of collapse by 2020 and to remain operational after an earthquake by 2030. California hospitals would need to make substantial investments to meet 2030 state seismic safety standards.

Mar 28, 2019
Report

Seismic Safety Upgrades May Cost California Hospitals Billions

California hospitals are required by law to reduce their buildings' risk of collapse by 2020 and to remain operational after an earthquake by 2030. Hospitals have to pay for the upgrades, which could cost between $34 billion and $143 billion statewide. One-third of California hospitals are already in some form of financial distress.

Mar 28, 2019
Commentary

How to Ensure Quality Drinking Water Service for All? One Option Is Fewer Utilities.

California's Human Right to Water Bill declares that “every human being has the right to safe, clean, affordable, and accessible water.” One clear barrier to reaching this target is the sheer number of small water utilities that pose service sustainability and public health risks to their customers.

Mar 26, 2019
Commentary

How Water Systems Can Learn From Smart Electric Grids

As drought and population growth place increasing pressure on water supply, the need to save and efficiently manage Southern California's water resources becomes increasingly critical. A single information and communication technology platform could go a long way toward moving water utilities from reactive to proactive maintenance practices.

Mar 22, 2019
Commentary

Increasing Groundwater Reliance in L.A. County Means Dealing with Extensive Contamination

As the Los Angeles region increases its reliance on groundwater sources to become more resilient in the face of drought and to reduce demand for imported water sources, advances in the information available on groundwater quality and contamination could help community water systems avoid health hazards and better ensure a safe drinking water supply.

Mar 12, 2019
Tool

Decision Support Tool for the San Francisco Bay-Delta Levee Investment Strategy

The Delta Stewardship Council commissioned the development of a risk modeling framework and decision support tool (DST) to aid in the formulation of a Delta Levees Investment Strategy.

Mar 7, 2019
Report

Decision Support Tool for the San Francisco Bay-Delta Levees Investment Strategy: Documentation and Use

This report describes the decision support tool and underlying methodology used to support the development of a levee investment strategy for the California Delta Stewardship Council.

Mar 7, 2019
Report

Report

An Examination of Recruiting and Selection Practices to Promote Diversity for Colorado State Troopers

The Colorado State Patrol (CSP) seeks to better reflect the demographic representation of the state of Colorado. This report offers an exploratory examination of how CSP's recruiting and selection policies and procedures relate to that objective.

Feb 28, 2019

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