Last year, Mathematica worked with researchers at Montana State University (MSU) to help assess the policy value of municipal wastewater testing, an innovative approach that can augment existing data by providing more rapid, cost-effective, and unbiased measures of drug use.
Significant attention has been focused on helping beneficiaries of Supplemental Security Income (SSI) and Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) participate in the work force. Increased work activity for these beneficiaries can increase self-sufficiency and reduce reliance on federal benefits, while simultaneously reducing federal outlays. Despite these efforts, work activity among beneficiaries has not increased substantially in recent decades. Three studies sponsored by the Social Security Administration’s Disability Research Consortium provide new information on work activity among SSI and SSDI beneficiaries and offer insights about the barriers they face in pursuing work.
The current earnings rules for Social Security Disability Insurance (DI) specify that, after using available work incentives, DI beneficiaries are not owed a DI benefit check if they earn more than a certain threshold. The Benefit Offset National Demonstration (BOND) tested a design intended to encourage DI beneficiaries to work by replacing the so-called cash cliff with a ramp—a $1 reduction in benefits for every $2 of additional earnings. BOND simultaneously tested the new rules with two groups: a nationally representative sample of DI beneficiaries and a group of recruited and informed volunteers—those thought to be most likely to earn more than the earnings threshold. Results from the five-year evaluation of BOND are now available for both groups.
The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA) of 2010 changed several aspects of the law concerning access to health insurance that were particularly salient for people with disabilities. These changes included removing limits on preexisting conditions, extending parent’s health insurance coverage of young adults until the age of 26, expanding Medicaid to more adults with low incomes, and making it easier to obtain affordable coverage outside the traditional employer-sponsored benefit system.
Join us for a webinar for a discussion about the role of evidence in a continuous improvement process and how a free, online platform—the Evidence to Insights Coach—can help educators generate the evidence they need when they need it.
This webinar highlights three research-to-practice partnerships between state and local policymakers and the Regional Educational Laboratory Mid-Atlantic to address this challenge, connecting educators and policymakers with researchers who provide analytic support and help education agencies build capacity to conduct their own analyses.