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Mathematica's Center on Health Care Effectiveness Launches Major Projects to Examine What Works,
What Doesn't in Health Care
Focus on Evaluating Comparative Effectiveness Evidence, Enhancing Data Infrastructure
Contact: Amy Berridge, (609) 945-3378
Washington, DC—November 3, 2010—The United States spends more on health care than any other developed nation—an estimated $2.6 trillion in 2010—yet our critical health indicators lag behind those of other countries. Experts agree that much of the care we provide isn't rooted in evidence, offers limited potential benefit, and occasionally may even be harmful. With the passage of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) in 2009 and the Affordable Care Act (ACA) in 2010, the federal government made a substantial public investment in comparative effectiveness research (CER). CER is a promising tool in moving the nation forward in identifying and implementing evidence-based care that makes a real difference in the lives of patients, providers, and other stakeholders. ARRA authorized $1.1 billion for CER, and the ACA created a new fund estimated to reach $500 million annually by 2013. Together, this funding represents an unprecedented effort to understand what works and what doesn't in health care.
Seizing this unique opportunity to build on its proven record of providing objective evidence and analysis to inform policy, Mathematica Policy Research launched the Center on Health Care Effectiveness (CHCE) earlier this year. The center draws on the experience and expertise of more than 150 health service researchers at Mathematica and its research affiliate, the Center for Studying Health System Change, to serve as a resource for policymakers, the public, and other stakeholders, inform health care policy, and improve patient outcomes.
In its first year, the center is embarking on three major projects to provide policy analysis and research synthesis in developing and using CER, and ensuring data infrastructure, integrity, and usability for research—a hallmark of Mathematica's work. These initial strategic efforts include:
- Evaluating the impact of ARRA funding on current CER. Center staff will evaluate ARRA-funded CER investments. Specifically, the project will identify barriers to achieving ARRA's CER goals, develop metrics to assess impacts, and provide feedback on short-term progress. Using collaborative research methods, identifying multiple community perspectives, and seeking input from a range of health care stakeholders, the center will assess the CER landscape and provide feedback to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS), Office of the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation (ASPE), as it works to shape the future of CER. Eugene Rich, MD, senior fellow and director of the center, leads this $4.2 million, three-year project.
- Developing Medicaid data infrastructure and improving data availability. The center will produce and enhance the Medicaid Analytic eXtract (MAX) files to support ARRA-funded CER, particularly for Medicaid and the Children's Health Insurance Program (CHIP). This project continues Mathematica's long history of making Medicaid administrative data useful for policy research and providing timely, accurate data, a critical information source for evidence-based studies. Senior researcher Julie Sykes directs this $7.6 million three-year project for the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS).
- Assessing the adoption of evidence-based practices for schizophrenia and bipolar disorder in state Medicaid programs. As part of the center's focus on the health care delivery system and using CER in practice, this project will assess how state Medicaid programs have adopted evidence-based practices to treat schizophrenia and bipolar disorder. Working with state Medicaid and mental health program directors, the research team will identify factors that influence the adoption of evidence-based practices. Senior fellow Henry Ireys directs this two-year, $300,000 contract for ASPE.
"We're excited to see the center's vision quickly become a reality as our nation struggles to understand what really works in health care," said center director Eugene Rich. "The reality is that U.S. health care practices are largely not based on rigorous evidence, and that's not good for patients, providers, and policymakers. These new projects will further the center's mission to inform CER and help to improve CER's power to inform decisions about health care at the individual and population level."
About the Center on Health Care Effectiveness: The center was founded in 2010 to inform health care policy and improve patient outcomes. Building on more than four decades of Mathematica's substantive expertise, methodological skill, and corporate infrastructure, CHCE is at the forefront of CER policy analysis and research. It combines a collaborative, collegial tradition with the broad-based talents of more than 150 health services researchers and scientists whose knowledge spans methodologies and disciplines. In addition to conducting comparative effectiveness policy analysis and research, the center provides evidence syntheses, delivery system research on putting CER into practice, and technical assistance for policymakers on using evidence to promote effective care.
About Mathematica: Mathematica Policy Research, a nonpartisan research firm, provides a full range of research and data collection services, including program evaluation and policy research, survey design and data collection, research assessment and interpretation, and program performance/data management, to improve public well-being. Its clients include federal and state governments, foundations, and private-sector and international organizations. The employee-owned company, with offices in Princeton, N.J., Ann Arbor, Mich., Cambridge, Mass., Chicago, Ill., Oakland, Calif., and Washington, D.C., has conducted some of the most important studies of health care, education, international, disability, family support, employment, nutrition, and early childhood policies and programs.