OBJECTIVE African Americans have less use of antidepressants than whites, suggesting racial differences in the diagnosis and treatment of mood disorders. This study assessed whether this racial disparity is present among patients with a very high risk of severe mood disorders--that is, those with completed suicides. METHODS Completed suicides that occurred between 1986 and 2004 were identifie...

BACKGROUND Some doubt the desirability and cost-effectiveness of continuing to provide an expanded scope of primary care practice. Additionally, there has been concern about declining reimbursement from Medicaid and Medicare. Although an expanded scope of patient care services are required for training, we wanted to determine whether these services drain resources and time from other primary ca...

BACKGROUND Potentially avoidable hospitalizations are inpatient admissions for certain conditions, called Ambulatory Care Sensitive Conditions (ACSCs), which can potentially be prevented by effective outpatient treatment of individuals who actively participate in their own care and engage in responsible personal behavior. Changes in the rates of ACSC hospitalizations over time may signal an imp...

We study the effect of public health insurance eligibility on labor supply by exploiting the largest public health insurance disenrollment in the history of the United States. In 2005, approximately 170,000 Tennessee residents abruptly lost public health insurance coverage. Using both acrossand within-state variation in exposure to the disenrollment, we estimate large increases in labor supply,...

Public hospitals are disproportionate providers of health care to America's indigent and minority populations. These institutions face an increasingly hostile environment, marked by budget reductions, rapid growth of Medicaid managed care, and an ideology that promotes privatization of the safety net. To survive, public hospitals must overcome problems of financing, quality, and governance that...

The Medicaid program funds more than 75% of public family planning expenditures and provides care to nearly 20 million individuals child-bearing age (Hasstedt et al., 2017Hasstedt K. Sonfield A. Gold R. Public funding for abortion services, FY 1980–2015. Guttmacher Institute, 2017www.guttmacher.org/report/public-funding-family-planning-abortion-services-fy-1980-2015Google Scholar). has will con...