Issues: Health & Disability

Health

MDRC is evaluating innovative strategies to improve preventive and routine health care services, health-related behavior, and health outcomes for low-income people, adults with multiple chronic conditions, and families with young children.

The Latest
Working Paper

Home visiting programs, which improve children’s development and strengthen caregivers’ and families’ well-being, faced many challenges during the COVID-19 pandemic. This paper examines a program that provided psychotherapeutic, parent-child services during the pandemic and the effects of delivering those services online or in a hybrid format at that time.

Report

Home visiting programs aim to support the healthy development of infants and toddlers in families with low incomes. This report presents the findings from a study that estimated the cost of providing home visiting services.

Key Documents
Report

Impacts on Health and Employment at Twelve Months

This demonstration tested the effects of earlier access to health care coverage and related services for new Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) beneficiaries. After one year, the program increased health care use, reduced reported unmet medical needs, and modestly improved health and functioning. It also increased job prep and search activities but did not raise employment levels.

Report

Managing Health Care for Medicaid Recipients with Disabilities

This program aimed to improve the quality of health care while reducing Medicaid costs by helping individuals use appropriate care that would reduce hospital admissions and emergency department visits. Like a similar pilot run by Colorado Access, which is described in a separate report, it had little effect on health care use.

Infographic

This infographic describes the Improving Contraceptive Options Now (ICON) demonstration, which is assisting primary care health clinics to better serve patients’ family planning needs by offering women a broader range of effective contraceptive options, including long-acting reversible contraception.