Reports

This report explores the feasibility of developing a core set of performance measures across four HHS programs that focus on service delivery to homeless persons.

Expenditures for health care in the United States continue to rise and are estimated to reach $1.66 trillion in 2003. Much of these costs can be attributed to the diagnosis and treatment of chronic diseases and conditions such as diabetes, obesity, cardiovascular disease and asthma. A much smaller amount is spent on preventing these conditions.

Prepared for:Office of the Assistant Secretary for Planning and EvaluationU.S. Department of Health and Human Services Project Officer: Walter Leginski

U.S. Department of Health and Human Services

U.S. Department of Health and Human Services

Contents Making the Decision to Operate Tribal TANF Developing a Sound TANF Plan Ensuring Smooth Program Implementation and Operations Lessons Learned and Implications  

Cash and Counseling, an innovative model of consumer direction, has been implemented as a three-state demonstration designed to weigh the advantages and disadvantages of allowing Medicaid beneficiaries to assume more responsibility for the supportive services they may need.

The purpose of this report is to describe five federal workforce development programs and how some long-term care agencies and service providers use them to improve the recruitment and retention of direct care workers.

An important component of the ASPE Health (Promotion and Aging Project is the development of such an inventory of health promotion, disease prevention, and health education activities targeted at informal caregivers for HHS.

This report, fromf HHS' congressionally mandated evaluation of DOL's Welfare-to-Work Grants Program, describes the challenges and successes of ten tribal grantees in planning, implementing, and operating tribal TANF, the tribal welfare program with the most participants and the largest budget.

Donna Rabiner, PhD, Janet O'Keeffe, PhD, and David Brown, MA RTI International

By: Walter Hillabrant and Mack B. Rhoades, Jr Support Services International, Inc. Nancy Pindus The Urban Institute

U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Federal Workforce Development Programs: A New Opportunity for Recruiting and Retaining Direct Care Workers in the Long-Term Care Field

U.S. Department of Health and Human Services

Implementation of the 1997 Balanced Budget Act's home health provisions dramatically reduced Medicare home health utilization and led to closures of many agencies. This paper examined the potential effects of the agency closings on beneficiary utilization rates. Findings suggest that agency closings, per se, had only a very small impact on changes in utilization rates between 1996 and 1999.

The goal of this report is to identify the individual-level factors associated with nursing home and assisted living entry and determine whether and how they differ. While it is possible to estimate a simple model of entry into these facilities at some point in the observation period, a more useful model would make use of data on elapsed time until such a transition.

U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Agency Closings and Changes in Medicare Home Health Use: 1996-1999 Korbin Liu, Douglas Wissoker, Frank Porell and Brian Overington July 2003 PDF Version (27 PDF pages)

U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Estimates of the Risk of Long-Term Care: Assisted Living and Nursing Home Facilities

Contents Key Questions and Findings Policy Relevance Future Research Endnote

This report utilizes survey and administrative data to examine the personal characteristics and situations, potential challenges for employment, compensating strengths and resources, and employment outcomes of TANF recipients in Illinois.

Submitted to:U.S. Department of Health and Human ServicesOffice of the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation Project Officer: John Tambornino

The Department of Health and Human Services awarded a contract to launch a national initiative designed to improve recruitment and retention of direct care workers in the long-term care field.

U.S. Department of Health and Human Services State-Based Initiatives to Improve the Recruitment and Retention of the Paraprofessional Long-Term Care Workforce

    U.S. Department of Health and Human Services   The Experiences of Workers Hired Under Consumer Direction in Arkansas Executive Summary

U.S. Department of Health and Human Services

This paper is the first to consider the Cash and Counseling program in all three states. It draws lessons about the structure and policies of a Cash and Counseling program, to provide information useful to other states considering adopting such a program.

In this paper, the authors use data obtained from the first Cash and Counseling demonstration, Arkansas' IndependentChoices, to assess the experiences of directly hired workers. They describe the types and amount of care that paid workers provide, the training and supervision they receive, their working conditions, and their well-being.

This paper describes the limited educational progress for children in Head Start and the problems resulting from a fragmented approach to early childhood programs and services. The paper also presents evidence from early childhood research and documents state efforts that have successfully addressed these problems.

This study describes policies and practices in Connecticut, Minnesota, and Texas designed to coordinate the child support enforcement program, Medicaid, and SCHIP in order to secure and sustain appropriate health care coverage for child support-eligible children.

Prepared by: Lisa A. Gennetian Senior Research Associate MDRC Prepared for:U.S. Department of Health and Human ServicesOffice of the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation

IntroductionThe period from birth through age 5 is a critical time for children to develop the physical, emotional, social, and cognitive skills they will need to be successful in school and the rest of their lives. Children from poor families, on average, enter school behind children from more privileged families.

U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Lessons from the Implementation of Cash and Counseling in Arkansas, Florida, and New Jersey

U.S. Department of Health and Human Services

State Practices in Medical Child Support Cross-Program Coordination Prepared by : Lynne Fender, Jen Bernstein (The Urban Institute) for :Office of the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation Office of the SecretaryU.S. Department of Health and Human Services June 2003

Alan White, Ph.D., Barbara Manard, Ph.D., Deborah Deitz, BSN, Terry Moore, MPH, RN, Donna Hurd, MSN, Christine Landino, MSW, MPH, Jennie Harvell, M.Ed. Abt Associates, Inc.

One of the challenges facing the U.S. in the 21st Century will be to ensure that individuals throughout their life will have the supports they need and will be treated with dignity. For the growing population of the elderly and people with disabilities, ensuring the adequacy and availability of direct care workers is key to meeting this ideal.

The Future Supply of Long-Term Care Workers in relation to The Aging Baby Boom Generation REPORT TO CONGRESS May 14, 2003 PDF Version: http://aspe.hhs.gov/daltcp/reports/ltcwork.pdf (59 PDF pages)

Marcelline R. Harris, RN, Ph.D., Mayo Clinic Christopher G. Chute, MD, Dr.P.H., Mayo Clinic Jennie Harvell, M.Ed., U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Alan White, Ph.D., Abt Associates

    U.S. Department of Health and Human Services   State Nursing Home Quality Improvement Programs: Site Visit and Synthesis Report Executive Summary

Contents Purpose and Background Summary of Findings Reflections Endnotes

Contents Introduction Agency Administration and Staffing Screening and Intake Investigation and Alternative Response Collaboration with Other Agencies Changes in CPS Practice

Contents Site-Specific Analyses Cross-Site Analysis: The Changing Urban Context Cross-Site Analysis: Health Trends and Study Hypotheses Conclusions  

There has been growing interest in the use of electronic health information systems. The Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS) emphasized as one of the Department's main priorities the use of information technology in health care.

The purpose of this project is to inform federal and state policymakers about what can be learned about the implementation and enforcement of state minimum nursing staff ratios for nursing homes, and related issues, such as labor shortages and resident casemix.

The purpose of this study is to inform state and federal policymakers about state-initiated quality improvement programs, with the particular goal of providing information to states that may wish to develop similar programs in their state. We focus primarily on activities under way in seven states — Florida, Iowa, Maine, Maryland, Missouri, Texas, and Washington.

This project focuses on the development, analysis, and use of neighborhood health indicators pertaining to children and youth.

Marcelline R. Harris, RN, Ph.D., Mayo Clinic Christopher G. Chute, MD, Dr.P.H., Mayo Clinic Jennie Harvell, M.Ed., U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Alan White, Ph.D., Abt Associates Terry Moore, Abt Associates