Ongoing Research

• AHRQ, Packard Foundation and HRSA Award $9.1 Million for Studies Designed to Improve Health Care for Low-Income Children
  Press Release: October 1999

  AHRQ, the David and Lucile Packard Foundation, and the U.S. Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) are funding a set of research studies to help public health insurance programs and health care delivery systems improve the quality of, and access to, health care for low-income children. Overall funding will total $9.1 million over three years for nine research projects.
  http://www.ahrq.gov/news/press/pr1999/chipgrpr.htm

• Supporting Research that Improves Health Care for Children and Adolescents

  Improving outcomes, quality, and access to health care for America's 70 million children and adolescents is central to the mission of AHRQ. Understanding the issues involved in improving the delivery of health care to children and adolescents requires a special research focus. In addition to this direct support of child health services research, the Agency is committed to providing national leadership to promote the use of research in improving health care for children and adolescents.
  New Starts, FY 1999 New Starts, FY 1998 New Starts, FY 1997
  Meetings and Workshop Summaries

• SCHIP: What's Happening? What's Next?
  May 26, 1999

  This ULP workshop was designed to complement current research findings with case studies from States with operational SCHIP programs and to provide participants with the opportunity to exchange ideas and raise questions with experienced State SCHIP policy officials who are responsible for program administration and policy.
  http://www.ahrq.gov/news/ulp/ulpchip.htm

• Shaping SCHIP Programs
  November 3-5, 1999

  This session from the ULP workshop: "Children with Special Healthcare Needs: Developing Integrated Systems of Care" highlighted approaches to serving CSHCN through SCHIP and explored how States have addressed a wide range of operational challenges within the context of the program.
  http://www.ahrq.gov/news/ulp/ulpcshcn8.htm

Tools and Surveys

• MEPS and HCUP

  These tools are being used by health services researchers to study national patterns in the use and costs of children's health care.

  • MEPS: An important tool for evaluating children's access to care is AHRQ's Medical Expenditure Panel Survey (MEPS), a continuing survey of American families' insurance coverage, use patterns, and expenditures for health care.
    http://www.ahrq.gov/data/mepsix.htm
  • HCUP: AHRQ maintains the powerful Healthcare Cost and Utilization Project (HCUP), a rich resource of data on use of hospital services.
    http://www.ahrq.gov/data/hcup/

  AHRQ strongly encourages researchers to use these and other data sources in their investigations.

• CAHPS®

  Development and validation of clinical practice outcome measures is a necessary first step in developing quality measures for children and adolescent health care. The following AHRQ quality measurement tools include measures specific to children:

  • CAHPS: The Consumer Assessment of Health Plans, a survey tool to measure patients' experiences with care, includes a module for children. In 1999 it was used as a required measure in the Health Plan Employer Data and Information Set, a quality measurement tool for managed care organizations developed by the National Committee for Quality Assurance (NCQA).
    http://www.ahrq.gov/child/Qmtools/tqmcahpsim.htm