Health Policy Research | CCRS | Biden School

Public health and health services

According to the American Public Health Association, public health promotes and protects the health of individuals and the communities where they live, learn, work and play. Public health is interdisciplinary work that is grounded in values of social justice and community empowerment, ultimately aimed at assuring the conditions in which all people can live healthy and productive lives.

These living and working conditions that impact health are often referred to as social determinants of health because they are shaped by the distribution of resources at the community or societal level, rather than being under the direct and sole control of individuals.

Examples of social determinants include the built environment (e.g. affordable quality housing, safe streets and parks, etc.), jobs, education, community characteristics (e.g. violence, social cohesion, etc.), as well as race/ethnicity, gender identity, disability status, and other characteristics of privilege.

The unequal distribution of these and other resources needed for good health are the underlying factors that drive inequities in health at the community level and is an important focus of our work.

CCRS works with community partners and state agencies to enhance the delivery of public health services, promote just and effective health and social policy, and ultimately improve the health of individuals and communities.

Medicaid

Through a partnership the Delaware Division of Medicaid and Medical Assistance (DMMA) and the College of Health Sciences, CCRS undertakes a number of analyses based on Medicaid data. Medicaid, health insurance coverage for low-income women, men, and children, insures approximately one-fourth of our population in Delaware.

Working collaboratively DMMA and other state agencies, CCRS is able to analyze Medicaid paid claims data to identify ways of enhancing the efficiency, effectiveness, impact, and return on investment of the state and federal Medicaid dollar.

CCRS and DMMA are members of AcademyHealth's State-University Partnership Learning Network (SUPLN), an ongoing collaboration that works to facilitate peer-to-peer learning and dialogue among state-university partnerships.

CCRS participates in the Delaware IDeA Network of Biomedical Research Excellence (INBRE) as a member of the DE-INBRE Centralized Share Resources (CSR).

"Its goal is to expand research activities across basic, translational and clinical areas throughout the First State while also increasing Delawares competitiveness for federal biomedical research funding. In doing so, Delaware INBRE supports impactful, state-of-the-art research that creates jobs, prepares tomorrows workforce and improves the health of Delawareans."

Core Access Award: Requests for proposals for research based on the Medicaid Claims in the areas of maternal/child health, pediatric populations, and social determinants of health are periodically issued. For more information, please contact Erin Nescott at eplynch@udel.edu.

The Medicaid claims data files contain claims from calendar year 2012 to present.

The database is comprised of five different files:

Medical claims (date of claim, diagnoses, current crocedure terminology codes)
Prescription claims (date of claim, national drug codes)
Client demographics (gender, race, birthdate)
Client Supplemental (eligibility, aid category, primary care physician, family ID, address)
Provider data (address, provider identification number)

Partnership