October 2017 Research Round-Up

Below are recent additions to our growing, searchable Evidence Library.

Medicaid Coverage of Social Interventions: A Road Map for States
D. Bachrach, J. Guyer, & A. Levin
This issue brief is a practical guide for policymakers who want to know when and how states can use Medicaid to facilitate access to social services.

Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) Participation and Health Care Expenditures Among Low-Income Adults
S.A. Berkowitz, H.K. Seligman, J. Rigdon, J.B. Meigs, & S. Basu | JAMA Internal Medicine
This study found that enrollment in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) is associated with lower estimated annual health care expenditures among low-income American adults.

Patterns of Collaboration Among Health Care and Social Services Providers in Communities with Lower Health Care Utilization and Costs
A.L. Brewster, M.A. Brault, A.X. Tan, L.A. Curry, & E.H. Bradley | Health Services Research
This study examines how health care and social service providers coordinate their work in communities that have different health care utilization/costs for older adults. The authors found that organizations in areas with lower utilization/costs collaborated more closely and matched patients with needed services more effectively.

Coordination Program Reduced Acute Care Use And Increased Primary Care Visits Among Frequent Emergency Care Users
R. Capp, G.J. Misky, R.C. Lindrooth, et al. | Health Affairs
This paper presents findings on the impacts of Bridges to Care (B2C)—an emergency department (ED)-initiated, community-based program that includes assistance with unmet social needs such as housing, transportation, and disability benefits. The study showed that the intervention reduced ED use and increased primary care visits among high ED utilizers in comparison to control group participants.

An Inside Look at Partnerships between Community-Based Organizations and Health Care Providers
S. Chazin & T. McGinnis | Center for Health Care Strategies Blog
The authors outline key drivers for effective partnerships that emerged from a national scan of cross-sector collaborations between health care providers and community-based organizations to address address social needs and introduce four case studies that highlight innovative collaborations in Kentucky, Michigan, Virginia, and Washington.

Association of an Asthma Improvement Collaborative with Health Care Utilization in Medicaid-Insured Pediatric Patients in an Urban Community
Kercsmar CM, Beck AF, Sauers-Ford H, et al. | JAMA Pediatrics
In this study of Medicaid-insured pediatric patients with asthma, monthly asthma-related hospitalizations and emergency department visits decreased significantly with use of a hospital-driven improvement collaborative focused on enhancing availability and accessibility of treatments, removing barriers to adherence, mitigating multidomain risks, augmenting self-management, and creating a collaborative relationship between the family and the health care system.

How 6 Organizations Developed Tools and Processes for Social Determinants of Health Screening in Primary Care: An Overview
K. LaForge, R. Gold, E. Cottrell, et al. | The Journal of Ambulatory Care Management
The authors of this paper describe processes used by six organizations to develop SDH screening tools for ambulatory care and the barriers they faced during those efforts.

Enhancing Dental Students' Understanding of Poverty Through Simulation
L.N. Lampiris, A. White, L.D. Sams, T. White, & J.A. Weintraub | Journal of Dental Education
This study found that a poverty simulation was effective in raising dental students' understanding of the challenges faced by low-income families.

Social Determinants of Health 101 for Health Care: Five Plus Five
S. Magnan | National Academy of Medicine Perspectives
Magnan articulates five things we know and five things health care organizations need to learn to address social determinants of health for the national quality strategy of better care, healthy people/healthy communities, and affordable care.

Re-evaluating Associations between the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program Participation and Body Mass Index in the Context of Unmeasured Confounders
J. Rigdon, S.A. Berkowitz, H.K. Seligman, & S. Basu | Social Science & Medicine
This study suggests that associations between participation in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) and increased body mass index (BMI) are confounded by unmeasured covariates.

Persistent Super-Utilization of Acute Care Services Among Subgroups of Veterans Experiencing Homelessness
D. Szymkowiak, A.E. Montgomery, E.E. Johnson, T. Manning, & T.P. O'Toole | Medical Care
This study characterizes subgroups of homeless veterans in an effort to identify individuals more likely to have persistent use of acute care services over time. The authors found that only a subset of homeless veterans were persistent super-utilizers, suggesting the need for more targeted interventions.