OBJECTIVE To determine the impact of Florida's Medicaid Reform Demonstration on per member per month (PMPM) Medicaid expenditures. DATA Florida Medicaid claims data from the two fiscal years before implementation of the Demonstration (FY0405, FY0506) and the first two fiscal years after implementation (FY0607, FY0708) from two reform counties and two nonreform counties. STUDY DESIGN A diffe...

Large-scale dams are controversial public infrastructure projects due to the unevenly distributed benefits and losses to local regions. The central government can make redistributive fiscal transfers to attenuate the impacts and reduce the inequality among local governments, but whether large-scale dam projects are Pareto improving is still a question. Using the geographic variation of dam impa...

A nationwide survey of county departments of social services revealed a need for medical services and consultation to child protection units. Over 92% of the 84 counties surveyed stated they had a problem meeting their medical needs and would be willing to hire a physician assistant as medical consultant to their county's child protection team. No county refused to consider a physician assistan...

A 4-year systematic survey for the presence of soybean cyst nematode Heterodera glycines in Ohio soybean fields was initiated in 1992. A total of 667 soybean fields in 63 counties was sampled. Heterodera glycines was present in 91 fields in 40 counties based on soil samples collected, and in one field in each of three additional counties based on soil samples submitted to the Plant and Pest Dia...

INTRODUCTION The Community Health Status Indicators Project was undertaken to produce county-specific reports assessing the status of community health for local jurisdictions throughout the United States. To accomplish this assessment, the Community Health Status Indicators Project team selected peer groupings of counties to monitor and analyze the health of local communities relative to peer c...

OBJECTIVES This intervention was implemented to reduce the prevalence of cigarette smoking among women. METHODS We used community organization approaches to create coalitions and task forces to develop and implement a multicomponent intervention in 2 counties in Vermont and New Hampshire, with a special focus on providing support to help women quit smoking. Evaluation was by pre-intervention ...

We evaluate the effect of alcohol access on drug-related crime and mortality using detailed information on access laws in Texas between 1978 and 1996. Counties with alcohol access have higher average levels of drug-related crimes. However, after controlling for both county and year fixed effects, we find that having local alcohol access decreases crime associated with illicit drugs. This basic ...

Competition among private Medicare Advantage (MA) plans is seen by some as leading to lower premiums and expanded benefits. But how much competition exists in MA markets? Using a standard measure of market competition, our analysis finds that 97 percent of markets in U.S. counties are highly concentrated and therefore lacking in significant MA plan competition. Competition is considerably lower...

The overall age-adjusted rate of motor vehicle traffic deaths in the United States decreased 25% from 14.6 deaths per 100,000 population in 2005 to 10.9 in 2015. During this period, the rate declined in each of the county groupings, with the largest decline of 26% in the large fringe metropolitan and micropolitan counties and the smallest decline of 20% in rural counties. For both years, the ra...

Background: The current study aims to determine whether suicide decedents who are residents of wet counties have higher odds of alcohol involvement than suicide decedents who are residents of moist/dry counties; and determine whether the association between alcohol sale status and alcohol-related suicide exists only in counties with a high population size. Methods: Multilevel logistic regressio...