Community colleges are a critical resource for women seeking to achieve economic security and stability, yet many women who are community college students face challenges that make it difficult to persist in their education and complete their degrees. To understand the circumstances and experiences of female community college students in…

Purpose: To assess the amount of local rural hospital outpatient department (HOPD) bypass for outpatient procedures. Methods: We analyzed data on colonoscopies and upper gastrointestinal endoscopies performed in the state of Florida over the period 1997-2004. Findings: Approximately, 53% of colonoscopy and 45% of upper gastrointestinal endoscopy…

This article describes the work-life benefits Gettysburg College offers its employees. 400 of Gettysburg's 725 full-time employees participate in the college's wellness program. About half of them stick with it long enough to earn discounts of up to $500 a year on their health-insurance premiums. The wellness program--which includes free on-campus…

This study examined the predictability of two employment outcomes--employment status and weekly earnings at closure--from consumer demographic, medical, and service variables for multiple groups of vocational rehabilitation (VR) consumers with HIV/AIDS retrieved from the RSA-911 data for fiscal years 2002 through 2007. A logistic regression…

The combined effect of race and place of residence on caregivers' perceptions of children's mental health services is underresearched. Differences in caregiver strain, barriers-to-care endorsement, and provider satisfaction are examined among 175 rural and urban African American caregivers from one Southern state whose children received Medicaid…

The Affordable Care Act includes many new provisions for long-term services and supports (LTSS). Among these are several new options, improvements, and incentives within Medicaid to balance service systems and expand access to home and community-based services. This article discusses some of the major provisions, implementations, and implications…

The Annual Disability Status Reports provide policy makers, disability advocates, reporters, and the public with a summary of the most recent demographic and economic statistics on the non-institutionalized population with disabilities. They contain information on the population size and disability prevalence for various demographic…

Background: The employment impact and financial burden experienced by families of children with fragile X syndrome (FXS) has not been quantified in the USA. Method: Using a national fragile X family survey, we analysed data on 1019 families with at least one child who had a full FXS mutation. Out-of-pocket expenditures related to fragile X were…

Many Medicaid programs have either fully or partially carved out mental health services. The evaluation of carve-out plans requires a case-mix model that accounts for differing health status across Medicaid managed care plans. This article develops a diagnosis-based case-mix adjustment system specific to Medicaid behavioral health care. Several…

Purpose: This study examines the structural relationships between social activities and trajectories of late-life depression. Design and Methods: Latent class analysis was used with a nationally representative sample of older adults (N = 5,294) from the Longitudinal Study on Aging II to classify patterns of social activities. A latent growth curve…

Purpose: Families of dementia patients receiving skilled homecare do not receive supportive services. We evaluated whether a proven intervention, Environmental Skill-building Program (ESP), which reduces caregiver burden and enhances skills managing patient functioning, can be integrated into homecare practices of occupational therapists (OTs) and…

Context: Rural residents are more likely to be uninsured and have low income. Purpose: To determine if rural residents in Arkansas have decreased access to eye care services and use them less frequently than urban residents. Methods: Data from the 2006 Visual Impairment and Access to Eye Care Module from the Arkansas Behavioral Risk Factor…

This article investigates general physician service use by a national sample of non-Hispanic white and Hispanic Medicare beneficiaries age 65 and older. Using the health behavior model as the conceptual framework, Oaxaca decomposition multivariate analyses were conducted to examine predictors for contact with a physician and the number of…

Faculty members and administrators should not assume that their colleges will pick up their medical bills during their retirement. Medicare benefits are not guaranteed that they will remain the same. Experts believe that the Medicare trust fund that pays for retiree hospital care will go bankrupt by 2019. As such, insurance experts are now urging…

The link between streptococcal infections and the onset of a variety of neuropsychiatric disorders is studied using a national sample of privately insured children. Findings suggest that patients with new-onset of obsessive-compulsive disorder, Tourette syndrome or tic orders were more likely to have been diagnosed with streptococcal infections in…