NIHCM Grants Over $500K for Health Services Research

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:

Washington, DC — January 14, 2020 — NIHCM Foundation has awarded over $500,000 in grants to support nine investigator-initiated research studies.

"Our grants support research with the potential to positively impact our health care system by building the evidence base and informing decision makers," said Nancy Chockley, Founding President and CEO of NIHCM Foundation.

This year's grantees are exploring the following topics:

• Helping Federally Qualified Health Centers to Use Telehealth to Address the Opioid Crisis
  Remote access to medication-assisted treatment (MAT) can be greatly expanded by FQHCs using telehealth to deliver these services, but such use has been low. This study will explore barriers to using telehealth; best practices from centers that are using telehealth for MAT; and strategies for overcoming barriers.

• How Consolidation Impacts Prescription Drug Pricing and Access
  This study will investigate the impact of mergers between drug manufacturers and between pharmacy benefit managers on drug prices and patient access to drugs.

• Measuring the Value of Emergency Mental Health Care
  Emergency departments (EDs) frequently treat patients with behavioral health conditions but may be ill-equipped to do so. This study will explore variations in the quality of behavioral health care provided in EDs and the relationship between facility capacity and involuntary detentions.

• International Reference Pricing and Bargaining in the Pharmaceutical Industry
  This year, the Trump administration proposed implementing an international pricing index as a means of lowering prescription drug costs in the U.S. This study will assess how adoption of this policy could affect prices in the U.S. and abroad.

• Improving Postpartum Health through Increased Medicaid Coverage after Childbirth
  Legislation proposed at the state and federal levels would provide extended pregnancy-related Medicaid coverage for postpartum women. This study will explore the impact of the Arkansas Medicaid expansion on full-year postpartum use of health care services, maternal outcomes and racial disparities.

• The Zero-Price Effect in the Individual Insurance Market
  Many health insurance exchanges now feature plan options with no premium, and current policy proposals may increase the availability of these plans. This study will explore how zero-price plans affect insurance take-up among different demographic groups and the types of health plans chosen by enrollees.

• How Coordinated Care Impacts Competition and Physician Referrals
  Accountable care organizations (ACOs) are designed to provide coordinated care for patients, which has implications for referral patterns from primary care providers to specialists. This study will examine how ACO penetration affects competitive dynamics in regional health care markets and the impacts on cost and quality.

• Exploring Geographic Variation in Medicare and Commercial Spending
  Health care spending varies significantly across the country with different patterns for public versus private payers. This study will explore how payer reimbursement schedules and physician practice style influence utilization and spending.

• Understanding Variation Across Health Systems in the Overuse of Healthcare by Older Adults
  This study will extend this team's previous work by quantifying the extent of systemic overuse at the level of individual health systems, where strategies to reduce overuse would be closer to the point of care delivery.