Category Archives: Health Policy Papers- Graduate

All of the work on this page is from courses within my health policy concentration as a Master of Public Policy (MPP) candidate at Brandeis University.

A Grassroots Campaign to Expand Health Insurance Coverage of Acupuncture in Massachusetts

Link to full paper Complementary and Alternative Medicine (CAM), also known as integrative therapies, has gained enormous popularity in the United States. The 2007 National Health Interview Survey revealed that 38 percent of adults and 12 percent of children use … Continue reading

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Masters Capstone Project: Strategies to Expand Health Insurance Coverage of Acupuncture- An Analysis of Policy Alternatives for Massachusetts

Link to full policy brief Complementary and Alternative Medicine (CAM), also known as integrative therapies, has gained enormous popularity in the United States. Despite high consumer demand, most of these treatments are not covered by private or public health insurance … Continue reading

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The Himalayan Cataract Project- Restoring Vision to the Developing World: A Case Study on Management Challenges in Ethiopia

This case study is based on the Himalayan Cataract Project (HCP), an organization dedicated to “eradicating preventable and curable blindness through high quality ophthalmologic care, education, and the establishment of a world-class eye care infrastructure.” The authors interviewed HCP’s chief … Continue reading

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The Patient Navigator Program at MGH: Improving Compliance with Colorectal Cancer Screening Guidelines in Underserved Populations

The Colorectal Cancer Patient Navigator Program at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) in Chelsea is widely recognized as a best practice for increasing colorectal cancer screening rates and reducing healthcare disparities among low income patients and those with low English proficiency, … Continue reading

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Policy Alternatives to Address the Problem of Low Compliance with Colorectal Cancer Screening Guidelines in Massachusetts

Link to full report Executive Summary The Problem: If detected early, colorectal cancer (cancer of the colon and/or rectum) has a 90 percent cure rate (National Colon Cancer Research Alliance 2011), but because of low rates of screening compliance it … Continue reading

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Strategies for Improving Adherence to Colonoscopy Screening Guidelines

This paper examines the reasons behind the lack of adherence to colonoscopy screening guidelines and suggests strategies for improving compliance with these quality measures based on a review of the pertinent literature and the author’s own opinions.

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Federalism and Policy Failure During Hurricane Katrina: Charity Hospital and the Displaced Uninsured

When Hurricane Katrina hit the Gulf Coast on August 29, 2005, close to 2,000 individuals lost their lives and the disaster cost the U.S. government $110 billion in damages, making Katrina the third deadliest and the most expensive hurricane in … Continue reading

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Implementing the Affordable Care Act in Virginia: Recommendations for the Governor

This report provides an overview of Titles I and II of the Affordable Care Act (ACA), analyzes the current state of health care in Virginia, discusses what has been done to date to implement the ACA in the Commonwealth, and … Continue reading

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Comparative Effectiveness Research- Why It Can Add Credibility to Complementary and Alternative Medicine

This paper argues that CER can be used to add credibility to certain types of CAM and examines some of the issues that could surface if CER becomes the new way of testing this type of medicine. Section One briefly … Continue reading

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Understanding the State Children’s Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) Using a Polity-Centered Approach

Using Theda Skocpol’s “polity-centered approach,” this paper analyzes the State Children’s Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) by taking into consideration the process through which this legislation was conceived, crafted, and implemented with an emphasis on the roles that political parties and special interest … Continue reading

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