The National Institute for Health Care Management (NIHCM) Foundation has awarded new grants totaling nearly $230,000 to support four investigator-initiated research projects. More than 100 submissions were submitted.
The research grant awards include:
- Identifying Winners and Losers under Proposals to Simplify Drug Plan Choice in Medicare Part D—the study will use comprehensive Medicare data and tools developed over several years of work with CMS to design and validate an analytical model of Medicare Part D plan selection
- Variations in Patient Experience with Tiered Physician Network—the study will use data from the Massachusetts Group Insurance Commission to investigate whether patient choice of physicians under tiered networks varies according to demographic characteristics, health status, physician specialty, or type of care being sought
- Assessing the Impact of Integrated Care Management on Health Services Use and Costs in Medicaid—the study will use data from Virginia’s largest Medicaid managed care plan to evaluate the effects of integrated case management on health service use, cost, and racial disparities. It will examine various subgroups of enrollees and differential impacts according to the type of case management used
- The impact of Payment Reform on Physician Referrals, Patient Flows, and Health Care Costs—the study will use data from the Massachusetts All Payer Claims Database to describe referral patterns across the state and evaluate the impact of global payments on referrals and spending
For more information, email Katie McDonald at nihcm@nihcm.org or phone (202) 296-4426.