Evaluating Medicaid Access for Halfway House Residents: A Research Partnership with the Connecticut Department of Correction, 2013-2017 (ICPSR 37580)
The goals of this study were to examine how providing Medicaid coverage for halfway house residents may affect care seeking, improve health care usage, and decrease criminal recidivism relative to providing health care through prison or jail medical facilities. To achieve these goals, we developed a researcher-practitioner partnership with the Connecticut Department of Correction (DOC) to implement a mixed-methods research design.
Qualitative data collection included focus groups with halfway house residents; interviews with halfway house staff, correctional health providers, correctional officers, and state-level DOC officials; and site observations of DOC medical facilities. Quantitative data collection included collection of administrative and recidivism data from DOC, coding of study participants' DOC medical charts to measure their baseline health status and health care usage in prison or jail, and collection of Medicaid enrollment and claims data from Connecticut's Department of Social Services (DSS) to measure Medicaid enrollment and health care usage in the community.
The Health Care Cost of Elder Abuse: An Analysis of Medicare, Medicaid, and Adult Protective Services Data in Maine, 2006-2014 (ICPSR 37372)
In partnership with the Maine Department of Health and Human Services, this study analyzed approximately 200 case files of Maine Adult Protective Services (APS) substantiated investigations of financial exploitation that were opened and completed from 2007 through 2012. The case files included detailed information about the types of abuse individuals experienced, their functional limitations, and severity of risk status. The research team linked the case files with the individuals' Medicare and Medicaid claims data from 2006 through 2014 to examine their claims experience one year prior to APS contact, during their APS event year, and two years following their APS event year. Using a quasi-experimental design, the research team established health care use and cost profiles of the APS clients and compared their profiles to matched controls in the general older population. The project aimed to advance knowledge of the financial impact of elder abuse.