North Carolina Medicaid Projects

The Sheps Center has a long partnership with Medicaid, including early evaluations of Community Care of North Carolina (CCNC), evaluations of the medical home, etc. We now hold data through the The Carolina Cost and Quality Initiative (CCQI) and have recently launched a partnership with the NC Division of Health Benefits to coordinate the Medicaid… Read more »

Workforce Outcomes of North Carolina Medical School Graduates: A Report to the Joint Legislative Oversight Committee on Health and Human Services and the Joint Legislative Education Oversight Committee

North Carolina Session Law 2017-57, Section 11J.2, the Current Operations Appropriations Act of 2017, directed the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) and The University of North Carolina (UNC) to assess the degree to which physician training programs in North Carolina meet the healthcare needs of North Carolina’s citizens. The Program on… Read more »

The Chiropractic Workforce In North Carolina and a Potential School of Chiropractic Medicine at Winston-Salem State University

The 2017 State Appropriations Act directed the Board of Governors (BOG) of the University of North Carolina (UNC) to study the feasibility of establishing a school of chiropractic medicine at Winston-Salem State University (WSSU). The Program on Health Workforce Research and Policy conducted a study of the supply and characteristics of chiropractors in North Carolina… Read more »

The Workforce Transformations Needed to Staff Value‐Based Models of Care

Erin Fraher, PhD, MPP; Rachel Machta, BS; Jacqueline Halladay, MD, MPH Research brief, November 2015 Key Findings: 1) Health care professionals are taking on new roles with medical assistants having one of the most rapidly evolving roles in new models of care. 2) New roles are emerging that focus on coordinating and managing patients’ care… Read more »

The State of the Physician Workforce in North Carolina: Overall Physician Supply Will Likely Be Sufficient but Is Maldistributed by Specialty and Geography

The number of physicians in North Carolina currently meets the needs of the population, but there are problems with geographic and specialty distribution. The match of supply to demand is likely to remain in rough balance due to the rapid increase in the number of new medical schools in the nation, the expansion of medical school classes in North Carolina, and a… Read more »

Tough choices: Autism, private health insurance and family out-of-pocket spending

Emerging patterns in our current work suggest that insurance choices of families raising children with autism are influenced by out-of-pocket expenditures without regard to the breadth and depth of services covered. This is troubling from a policy perspective since low deductible and co-payment plans are expensive and reduce resources thereby constraining use of uncovered services…. Read more »

Adequate Health Insurance for Children with Autism

Evidence and Implications for Defining Essential Benefits – Families raising children with autism contribute significant amounts out-of-pocket to the cost of care and that this pay-as-you-go strategy is associated with disparities in use for vulnerable families (Thomas, Williams et al, 2013; Parish, Thomas, Williams et al, 2013). As a result, in comparison to other children… Read more »

Pathways in Nursing Careers: Transitions from the Role of Licensed Practical Nurse to Registered Nurse in North Carolina (2014-15)

Investigators:  Cheryl Jones, PhD, RN, FAAN; George Knafl, PhD; Mark Toles, PhD, RN; Anna Beeber, PhD, RN Background: In a reforming health care system, nursing personnel, including licensed practical nurses (LPNs) and registered nurses (RNs), are viewed as flexible health care workers because they are readily deployed in diverse health care settings, reduce workforce shortages,… Read more »

Understanding How the Diffusion of Physicians Creates Areas of Underservice (2014-15)

Investigators: Thomas Ricketts, PhD; Erin Fraher, PhD, MPP; Andy Knapton, MSc Background: States and the federal government devote substantial resources to influence physicians to practice in underserved areas.  Like the general population, the physician workforce is mobile.  About 20% of the active employed physician workforce will relocate to another county within a five-year period. Federal… Read more »

Philip Sloane, MD, MPH and Sheryl Zimmerman, PhD lead team to develop Alzheimer’s Medical Advisor website

Program on Aging, Disability, and Long-term Care co-directors Philip Sloane, MD, MPH and Sheryl Zimmerman, PhD are leading a multidisciplinary team to develop Alzheimer’s Medical Advisor,© a website that aims to help family caregivers of persons with dementia deal with new and worsening medical symptoms in their relatives.  When people with Alzheimer’s disease or related… Read more »

Community Reentry of Persons with Severe Mental Illness Released from State Prison

Joseph P Morrissey, PhD, Co-Principal Investigator Gary Cuddeback, PhD, MSW, MPH, Co-Investigator Marisa Domino, PhD, Co-Investigator Subcontractors: Linda Frisman, PhD, Co-Principal Investigator; Director of Research, Connecticut Department of Mental Health & Addiction Services David Mancuso, PhD, Responsible Investigator, Senior Research Supervisor, Washington State Department of Social and Health Services, Research and Data Analysis Division Consultants:… Read more »

Improving Colon Cancer Screening for Diverse Populations

Diverse, vulnerable populations, especially Latinos, have low colon cancer screening rates. These groups are disproportionately affected by the many patient, provider, and system-level barriers that inhibit colon cancer screening. Latinos, the nation’s largest and fastest growing racial/ethnic minority group, face additional language and cultural barriers. Reducing disparities in colon cancer screening among vulnerable populations is… Read more »