Human Services

Linking data across public systems is beneficial for a multitude of reasons including care coordination, improving research on populations engaged with multiple public services, and improving program integrity.

Assisted outpatient treatment (AOT) is a civil court procedure whereby a judge orders an adult with serious mental illness (SMI) to comply with community-based treatment. Developed as a less restrictive alternative to involuntary hospitalization, AOT focuses on individuals at risk of clinical deterioration or rehospitalization because they do not voluntarily comply with prescribed treatment.

A 2020 study examined the feasibility of using substance use disorder (SUD) patient intake assessment data as source of information for treatment planning.

The Office of the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation in the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services has been working with researchers, human services agency leaders, and persons with lived experience to visualize, describe, and document models of primary prevention within human services.

This one-pager describes the research questions and objectives of a project exploring the use of custody relinquishment, or when children enter foster care primarily to obtain behavioral health or disability services.

This two-pager describes several child welfare and Medicaid data linking projects and lessons learned from those projects. For example, the brief highlights key lessons such as the value in providing states with support in navigating data governance and in strengthening and harmonizing data infrastructure on child welfare service.

This environmental scan, conducted by Mathematica and funded by ASPE, examines the types of direct and direct costs to patients associated with clinical trial participation. It also explores the effect of COVID-19 on costs to patients, including cost implications of clinical trial innovations widely implemented during COVID-19 and other efforts to increase diversity of clinical trials.

In 2023, ASPE launched a research project to understand the impacts of COVID-19 on the clinical trial enterprise and identify key lessons learned.

In April 2024, CMS issued the Minimum Staffing Standards for Long-Term Care Facilities and Medicaid Institutional Payment Transparency Reporting final rule which established new minimum nurse staffing requirements for nursing homes by nurse type.

States may use Appendix K to modify their existing Medicaid home and community-based services (HCBS) 1915(c) waiver programs during emergency situations. During the COVID-19 public health emergency, states used Appendix K to make temporary changes to access and eligibility, payment, services, and other aspects of their waiver programs.