Health Research and Policy Center
The AIR Health Research and Policy Center focuses on identifying and answering important and timely questions about the cost and quality of care, people’s access to care, and health disparities, among other pressing policy issues.
Our Work | Health Research and Policy Center
Spanning health research and policy topics from costs and quality to access and disparities, center researchers identify promising interventions and analyze spending and utilization trends across Medicare, Medicaid, and private insurance using leading-edge data science, datasets, and technology tools.
Ongoing center research includes examining:
- Medicare and chronic kidney disease;
- Medicare utilization and spending trends for beneficiaries with Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias;
- Medicaid coverage of evidence-based perinatal services;
- Medicaid home and community-based services;
- Social determinants of health and access to oncology care;
- Drug policy, use, and costs; and
- COVID-19 public health emergency impact.
Explore our latest work below.
Medicare and Alzheimer’s Disease
Use of Care Management Services by Medicare Beneficiaries With and Without Alzheimer’s Disease and Related Dementias
About 7 million older Americans live with Alzheimer’s, a devastating disease that can overwhelm individuals, families and caregivers. Along with the human toll, U.S. spending on Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias (ADRD) reached $360 billion in 2024. This data brief provides a snapshot of Medicare fee-for-service beneficiaries aged 65 years and older with and without ADRD and their use of four Medicare-covered care management services: advance care planning, chronic care management, transitional care management, and behavioral health integration.
Medicare and Chronic Kidney Disease
Crash Dialysis Trends Show Potential Areas for Medicare Quality and Cost Improvement
More than 125,000 Americans develop kidney failure annually and need dialysis or a transplant to stay alive. The worst outcomes occur among patients starting dialysis in an unplanned manner—known as crashing into dialysis. Based on a new claims-based measure developed by AIR, about one in three fee-for-service Medicare beneficiaries with kidney failure crashed into dialysis during 2018–2022. Consistent screening for chronic kidney disease would likely reduce the need for crash dialysis and lead to improved quality and savings for Medicare.
Medicaid
Study Finds Wide Variation in State Coverage of Evidence-Based Perinatal Services
The United States has worse maternal health outcomes than other high-income countries, and large, persistent disparities in maternal outcomes exist across settings and demographic characteristics. Medicaid covers more than four in 10 U.S. births. This analysis found wide variation in state Medicaid coverage of evidence-based perinatal services that can improve outcomes, particularly alternative care models like freestanding birth centers and whole-person, wraparound maternal care. State variation in Medicaid coverage of evidence-based perinatal services likely influences maternal outcomes and worsens place-based disparities.
Other Medicaid-focused research includes analyses of coverage expansions and adult mortality and using doulas to address maternal health disparities.
Drug Policy
Biosimilars and Cost Saving: Will Interchangeable Biosimilars Do to Biologics What Generic Drugs Did to Brand Name Medications?
This brief discusses the introduction of interchangeable biosimilars, a generic form of biologics, as well as efforts to encourage their use, particularly in Medicare.
COVID-19
Pandemic Disproportionately Drove Dually Eligible Medicare-Medicaid Beneficiaries to Skilled Nursing Facilities: Lessons from COVID-19
Using claims data from before and during the COVID-19 pandemic (2017–2021), this analysis examined skilled nursing facility admissions among Medicare fee-for-service beneficiaries and found that those who were dually eligible for Medicare and Medicaid were more severely affected by the COVID-19 public health emergency and had a more challenging recovery than Medicare-only beneficiaries.
Other COVID-19 research includes analyses of how the public health emergency affected care for Medicare beneficiaries with ambulatory care sensitive conditions (ACSCs), such as hypertension, diabetes and heart disease; medication adherence for Medicare beneficiaries living with hypertension; and telehealth use during the pandemic by Medicare beneficiaries with ACSCs.