In November 2024, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) released the Medicare Program; Contract Year 2026 Policy and Technical Changes to the Medicare Advantage Program, Medicare Prescription Drug Benefit Program, Medicare Cost Plan Program, and Programs of All-Inclusive Care for the Elderly proposed rule.
Reports
Displaying 1 - 50 of 4341
Federal Alignment with Research-Based Practices on School-Age Development and Well-Being
Childhood development experts recommend specific practices for afterschool and youth development programs to promote well-being and healthy development, including positive relationships; rich learning experiences and knowledge development; environments filled with safety and belonging; the development of skills, habits, and mindsets; and integrated support systems.
Evaluation of the Impact of the No Surprises Act on Health Care Market Outcomes: Exploring Pre-Implementation Trends - Report Two
Topics
Health Insurance
This second report focuses largely on updating pre-NSA trends in claims data presented in the first report.
Novel Antimicrobial Drug Development and Access: U.S. Government Support and Opportunities
The pipeline and commercial market for novel antimicrobial drugs is insufficient to address current and future patient needs or mitigate the loss of effective treatments as antimicrobial resistance spreads. The U.S. Government implements a range of efforts to ensure sustainable availability of antimicrobial treatments, supporting research, product development, and appropriate use.
Evaluating Medicaid Strategies to Streamline Ex Parte Renewals
National estimates indicate that streamlined renewal options for Medicaid beneficiaries with incomes below 100 percent of the federal poverty level and without an ex parte income data source would provide timely and accurate eligibility determinations.
Buprenorphine Dispensing Among Women of Reproductive Age in the U.S. by Provider Type, 2013-2022 Data Brief
This study of national retail pharmacy data from 2013 to 2022, found an overall increase in buprenorphine dispensed to women of reproductive age and a marked increase in fills that were prescribed by nurse practitioners/physician assistants.
Overview of Bereavement and Grief Services in the United States
This report presents findings of an environmental scan and semi-structured interviews with key contributors, including governmental and non-governmental contributors, such as researchers, clinicians, advocates, service provider/payers, and policy experts. The findings included in this report are organized by specific domains and themes found within the peer-reviewed and grey literature.
Feasibility of Obtaining Identifiers for Self-Directing Home and Community-Based Services Users in Medicaid Claims
This report outlines a feasibility study focused on obtaining identifiers for self-directed Home and Community-Based Services (HCBS) users within Medicaid claims data. Financial Management Services (FMS) entities assist individuals in managing the financial aspects of self-directed care, including payroll and billing.
State and Local Estimates of the Uninsured Population in the U.S. Using the Census Bureau’s 2023 American Community Survey
In order to support state and local outreach efforts, ASPE has developed state, county, and local estimates of the number of U.S. residents without health insurance and their demographic characteristics, using the most recent Census data available from the 2023 American Community Survey (ACS).
Marketplace Coverage of Small Business Owners and Self-Employed Workers
Topics
Healthcare Coverage & Access
The Affordable Care Act Marketplace has led to substantial coverage gains among small business owners and self-employed individuals. The enhanced premium tax credits introduced by the American Rescue Plan and the Inflation Reduction Act have contributed to further increases in Marketplace coverage among small business owners and self-employed workers.
Access to Health Care in Rural America: Current Trends and Key Challenges
This research report describes patterns in insurance coverage and uninsurance rates in rural and urban areas, reviews non-financial challenges in accessing care faced by many rural residents, and describes disparities in health outcomes between urban and rural areas.
Developing and Piloting a Federal Evaluation Approach for Complex Cross-Agency Initiatives: The Overdose Prevention Test Case
The final summary report on “Developing and Piloting a Federal Evaluation Approach for Complex Cross-Agency Initiatives: The Overdose Prevention Test Case” lays out the findings of HHS effort to test a cross-departmental methodology.
Health Insurance Coverage and Access to Care Among Young Adults, Ages 19 to 25
This issue brief shows coverage gains among young adults under the Affordable Care Act, the American Rescue Plan, and the Inflation Reduction Act. The uninsured rate among this group declined by more than half, from 31.5 percent in 2009 to 13.1 percent in 2023, as employer-sponsored dependent coverage increased by over 20 percent.
Health Care Workforce: Key Issues, Challenges, and the Path Forward
This report outlines the major issues faced by the U.S. health care workforce. It addresses medical, dental and behavioral health components of the workforce as well as direct care workers. The report also describes opportunities for progress to address these issues and existing activities supported by the Department to address these issues.
Medicare Part D Enrollees Reaching the Out-of-Pocket Limit by June 2024
The Inflation Reduction Act established a limit on out-of-pocket spending (“the 2024 cap”) for enrollees with very high prescription drug spending in Medicare Part D, for the first time in the history of the program.
Guidance on Proper Consideration of Small Entities in Rulemakings of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services
This guidance, originally published in 2003, contains the following introduction:
Participant Diversity by Race, Ethnicity, and Sex in Rare Disease Clinical Trials: A Case Study of Eight Rare Cancers
Rare cancer clinical trials appear to enroll less diverse participants than clinical trials more broadly and therefore may require additional considerations or unique solutions to diversify participant recruitment. These differences persisted within both NIH and non-NIH funded trials.
Assessing Medicaid Payment Rates and Costs of Caring for the Medicaid Population Residing in Nursing Homes: Final Report
The purpose of this research was to understand the relationship between state Medicaid payment rates to nursing homes and those facilities’ costs of providing care to Medicaid residents.
Impact of Climate Change on Health and Drug Demand
It is anticipated that extreme weather events due to climate change will increase the prevalence of a number of acute and chronic diseases. As a result, the demand for drugs to prevent or treat those conditions is likely to increase.
Drug Development
The cost of bringing a medical product to the U.S. market has been increasing and clinical trials constitute a large portion of these costs. In drug development, the clinical phase lasts an average of around 95 months compared to 31 months for the non-clinical phase and accounts for 69 percent of overall R&D costs (DiMasi, et al., 2016).
Case Studies in Supporting Prevention through Human Services Program Integration
Topics
Care & Service Delivery Settings
| Case Management
| Evidence-Based Policies & Practices
| Prevention
| Service Delivery & Capacity Building
| Social Determinants of Health
| Adoption & Foster Care
| Child Maltreatment
| Child Welfare
| Family Well-Being
| Transition to Adulthood
| Evidence-Based Policymaking
| Family Homelessness
| Youth Homelessness
| Access to Services and Benefits & Services Integration
| Human Services Financing & Expenditures
| Social Safety Net
| Welfare, Welfare Reform, & TANF
| Human Services Policy
| Poverty & Income Dynamics
The Office of the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation in the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services has been working with researchers, human services agency leaders, and persons with lived experience to visualize, describe, and document models of prevention within human services.
Supporting Child and Family Well-Being: Case Studies
The Office of the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation (ASPE) in the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) seeks to understand efforts to promote child and family well-being in jurisdictions across the country.
Elevating Prevention and Promotion Efforts in Early Childhood Mental Health: A Case Study Series Page
This series of five case studies describe evidence-based, innovative, and exemplary practices that support positive mental health for children. The case studies in five organizations highlight key elements of prevention and promotion efforts in early childhood mental health, as well as the contextual factors that support implementation.Available Reports:
Participant Experiences with Improving Well-Being Through Human Services Programs
This brief summarizes focus groups and interviews with individuals who receive support through human services programs and federal benefits. These conversations explored participants’ feelings about well-being, including what it means to them and how the support they received through federal benefits and local human services programs influenced their well-being.
HealthCare.gov Plan Selections by Race and Ethnicity, 2015-2024
This issue brief presents Marketplace plan selections by race and ethnicity among 2015-2024 Open Enrollment Period enrollees in HealthCare.gov states using combined self-reported race and ethnicity information with imputed data for missing values.
HHS Strategic Approach to Addressing Social Determinants of Health: Agency Program, Activity, and Policy Highlights
This report highlights key programs, activities, and policies of HHS’ strategic approach to addressing social determinants of health, including early accomplishments to date and stories of the on-the-ground impact that these initiatives are making in people’s lives. These and other actions being taken by HHS, and across the federal government, as well as cross-sector initiatives at the com
Coordinating Integrated Prevention Approaches to Serve the Whole Person
Topics
Care & Service Delivery Settings
| Case Management
| Evidence-Based Policies & Practices
| Prevention
| Service Delivery & Capacity Building
| Social Determinants of Health
| Adoption & Foster Care
| Child Maltreatment
| Child Welfare
| Family Well-Being
| Transition to Adulthood
| Evidence-Based Policymaking
| Family Homelessness
| Youth Homelessness
| Access to Services and Benefits & Services Integration
| Human Services Financing & Expenditures
| Social Safety Net
| Welfare, Welfare Reform, & TANF
| Human Services Policy
| Poverty & Income Dynamics
The Office of the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation in the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services has been working with researchers, human services agency leaders, and persons with lived experience to visualize, describe, and document models of prevention within human services.
Elevating Prevention and Promotion in Early Childhood Mental Health
Efforts to promote positive mental health and prevent the onset of mental health difficulties are crucial for supporting healthy early childhood social-emotional development and well-being.
Factors that Impact the Child Support Program’s Role in Reducing Child Poverty: Convening Summary
This brief summarizes an expert convening focused on the child support program’s current ability and future potential to help address child poverty.Key Findings
Medicaid: The Health and Economic Benefits of Expanding Eligibility
This Issue Brief examines the impact of Medicaid throughout its six decades and highlights the importance of Medicaid coverage for low-income children and adults. The brief reviews studies showing that access to Medicaid coverage is associated with a significant improvement in health and mortality.
Knowledge Dissemination Among State, Tribal, Local, and Territorial Public Health Agencies Through Communities of Practice During the COVID-19 Pandemic
The Office of the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation (ASPE) released a report summarizing lessons learned from using communities of practice (CoPs) to support state, Tribal, local, and territorial (STLT) public health agencies during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Opioid Use Treatment of Pregnant/Postpartum Women and their Children
This study represents findings from a descriptive analysis of a linked mother-child Medicaid claims dataset to examine the characteristics of pregnant women who use medication for opioid use disorder (MOUD) or intensive behavioral health treatment; additional analysis describes the mental health and neurodevelopment outcomes of their children at one year and three years.
Best Practices for COVID-19 Vaccination and Testing
The Office of the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation (ASPE) and the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Health (OASH), in partnership with Mathematica, are conducting a comprehensive study to identify promising practices aimed at reducing disparities in COVID-19 vaccination and testing, and policy options to promote equitable, routine vaccination.
Report to Congress - The Burden of Cardiovascular Disease in the United States: Patterns and Barriers to Care
Cardiovascular disease (CVD) is a broad category of diseases affecting approximately half of American adults. Despite progress in treatment and management, CVD still has a large health, mortality, and economic burden. This report to Congress describes CVD and its adverse health outcomes, as well as certain risk factors and prevention and treatment options.
Measuring Preparedness for Public Health and Health Care Emergencies: The Current State of Preparedness Metrics in the United States and Considerations for the Future
To help the federal government and STLT jurisdictions better prepare for emergencies, there is a need to understand how prepared different jurisdictions are for various emergencies. However, assessing whether a jurisdiction is prepared for different emergencies is inherently complex and there is a lack of consensus among practitioners and scholars on how to approach preparedness measurement.
Nursing Home Closures Did Not Increase in 2020 and 2021, Despite Financial Challenges Caused by the COVID-19 Pandemic Issue Brief
Nursing homes experienced unprecedented financial challenges during the COVID-19 pandemic, raising concerns about a potential increase in nursing home closures.
Racial, Ethnic, and Socioeconomic Differences in COVID-19 Diagnosis and Mortality Among Nursing Home Residents
Nursing homes have been disproportionately impacted by COVID-19. The purpose of this study was to examine whether there were racial, ethnic, and socioeconomic differences in COVID-19 infection and mortality rates at both the nursing home resident and nursing home facility levels. The study includes national data on COVID-19 outcomes for nursing home residents through the end of June 2021.
FDA Breakthrough Therapy Designation Reduced Late-Stage Drug Development Time
This landing page presents the abstract of a paper published in Health Affairs. The full text of the article is available at: https://www.healthaffairs.org/doi/abs/10.1377/hlthaff.2023.00837.
National Action Plan for Combating Antibiotic-Resistant Bacteria Progress Report: Fiscal Year 2022
The evolution of pathogens to resist the drugs used to treat infections is an ongoing threat to public health, animal health, food production, and national security. Globally, a recent analysis estimated that 1.2 million deaths were caused by antibiotic-resistant (AR) bacteria in 2019, making this threat a leading cause of death for people of all ages worldwide.
National Uninsured Rate at 8.2 Percent in the First Quarter of 2024
Topics
Health Insurance
Newly released data from the National Health Interview Survey indicate no statistically significant change in the uninsured rate in the first quarter of 2024 from the previous year.
Addressing the Maternal Health Crisis in the United States: An Update from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services
Topics
Maternal & Child Health
This report has been prepared by the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Health (OASH), Office on Women's Health (OWH) and the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation (ASPE) in concert with other HHS agencies within the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). This report discusses activities and outcomes of HHS programs addressing the maternal health crisis.
Medicare Drug Price Negotiation Program: Medicare Prices Negotiated for 2026 Compared to List and U.S. Market Prices
The Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) makes improvements to Medicare to increase accessibility and affordability of prescription drugs for Medicare enrollees, reduce the rate of growth in Medicare drug spending, and improve the financial sustainability of the Medicare program.
Barriers and Opportunities for Improving Interstate Licensure Portability for Behavioral Health Practitioners: Technical Expert Panel Findings Issue Brief
In October 2022, ASPE convened a virtual technical expert panel (TEP) to discuss policy options that encourage interstate licensure among behavioral health providers.
Building Successful Data Linking Teams for Child Welfare and Medicaid Agencies: Lessons Learned from the Child Welfare and Health Infrastructure for Linking and Data Analysis of Resources, Effectiveness, and Needs (CHILDREN) Initiative
Linking data across public systems is beneficial for a multitude of reasons including care coordination, improving research on populations engaged with multiple public services, and improving program integrity.
Evaluation of the Assisted Outpatient Treatment Grant Program for Individuals with Serious Mental Illness
Assisted outpatient treatment (AOT) is a civil court procedure whereby a judge orders an adult with serious mental illness (SMI) to comply with community-based treatment. Developed as a less restrictive alternative to involuntary hospitalization, AOT focuses on individuals at risk of clinical deterioration or rehospitalization because they do not voluntarily comply with prescribed treatment.
Trends in Medicaid and CHIP Telehealth, 2019-2021 Part I: Medicaid and CHIP Telehealth Utilization by Enrollee Characteristics
Topics
Healthcare Coverage & Access
The COVID-19 pandemic dramatically increased the number of Medicaid and CHIP services delivered via telehealth to all enrollees, regardless of age or race and ethnicity. This Issue Brief examines changes in Medicaid utilization of telehealth services by enrollee characteristics.
Developing a Database of SUD Treatment Needs
A 2020 study examined the feasibility of using substance use disorder (SUD) patient intake assessment data as source of information for treatment planning.
Linking Medical Product Manufacturing Locations with Natural Hazard Risk: Implications for the Medical Product Supply Chain
This ASPE data point links manufacturer location data with the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) National Risk Index (NRI), which describes relative risk of experiencing a variety of natural hazards in order to highlight the ways in which natural disasters may pose supply chain vulnerabilities within the U.S.