Health Data for Action Grantees
In 2019, CIVHC partnered with Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF) and AcademyHealth to support the Health Data for Action program, which provided data sets to researchers who needed access to data for their research projects. The program was similar to a grant, where researchers could apply to receive a data set from a list of national organizations (including CIVHC) and RWJF and AcademyHealth acted as conduits to facilitate and fund access.
Through this program, CIVHC provided CO APCD data to researchers from Duke and Cornell University. In each instance, the researchers wanted to better understand the patient journey and outcomes for specified health care services, which was a perfect match for CO APCD data.
Examining Medicare Reliance after Implementation of Medicare Payment Reform and the ACA Marketplace
At Duke University, researchers were interested in gathering data related to patients with End-Stage Kidney Disease (ESKD), the type of health insurance coverage they had, and their costs and outcomes. Additionally, they wanted to measure the impact of coverage due to policy changes, specifically to Medicare, such as the 2014 Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA).
To fully understand the impact of insurance coverage type among patients with ESKD, Duke researchers needed a data source like the CO APCD which includes both public and private payers. They ultimately requested an Identifiable Custom Data Set from the CO APCD to measure the potential impact of payer type on access to care, outcomes, and costs, with the goal of understanding several key questions:
- Did Medicare and private insurance coverage among new ESKD patients change after federal policies impacting ESKD care payment and coverage were enacted?
- What characteristics are associated with enrollment into Medicare during the 1st year of ESKD diagnosis?
- Does a patient’s insurance coverage type effect the likelihood of home dialysis (less costly to providers and payers) and overall payments for dialysis?
Between 2006 and 2016, their research found a decline in Medicare enrollment among patients with new ESKD, specifically in the years after the enactment of the Medicare Payment Reform and the ACA. More results of Duke’s research can be accessed here.
Comparing Healthcare Quality, Costs, and Utilization among Different Models of Telehealth Provision
During the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, telehealth expansion was supported by sweeping changes in federal, state, and commercial health insurance telehealth policies. These policy changes, in addition to surging demand for remote care, led to a surge in telehealth visits with both providers who have historically primarily delivered care remotely, as well as those who typically see patients in person.
In 2021, researchers from Cornell University began studying whether the cost, utilization and quality of telehealth care for a patient vary depending on how regularly the provider offers telehealth services. This study aims to be among the first to provide evidence on intended and unintended outcomes related to telehealth coverage expansion, including a better understanding of whether telehealth primarily supplements or substitutes for in-person care, and whether certain types of telehealth providers are more likely to provide high-quality, low-cost care.