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Changes in the complex prospective payment system (PPS) for home health agencies (HHAs) may have led to HHA behavior changes that thwarted the modifications’ goals. As a result, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) wanted an assessment of…

Cancer strikes 1.6 million Americans each year. It imposes huge costs: heartache, death, and an estimated $263.8 billion in medical care and lost productivity in 2010, the most recent data available. Cancer care is complex and improving it faces a legal…

Pregnant woman and health care personnel (HCP) need flu shots, yet coverage for these groups historically has been below national targets. Without shots, the groups’ health risks soar. Pregnant women who get the flu not only can contract severe diseases…

Millions of U.S. children receive free or reduced-price lunches each school day, but that number drops greatly during summer. In 2014, summer nutrition programs reached only about 16 percent of the children who received food assistance during the year…

The Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative was launched to reduce carbon pollution in 10 states in the Northeast: Vermont, Rhode Island, New Hampshire, Maine, Delaware, Connecticut, Maryland, Massachusetts, New York and New Jersey. In this first carbon…

More than 140 unregulated chemicals contaminate public water supplies in 42 states. The risk to consumers is unclear because researchers haven’t figured out the threshold for when they cause harm. To weigh regulatory options, the Environmental Protection…

Decoding is an essential skill to read words that a person may only have heard spoken. It is not just important for children. Millions of U.S. adults are non-literate or can perform only simple, literacy tasks. They need decoding skills, too—although…

In 2010, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services funded 16 grantees, including Hennepin County, Minn., to replicate and evaluate evidence-based teen pregnancy prevention programs. Abt Global conducted a rigorous evaluation of Hennepin County’s…

The misuse of opioids is a national crisis. One aspect of the larger problem relates to prescription opioids for Medicare beneficiaries. The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) needs to evaluate trends to fight potential fraud, waste, and…

More than six in 10 drug overdose deaths in the U.S. involve an opioid, and an estimated 91 Americans die every day from an opioid overdose, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. For the homeless who survive an opioid overdose and…