Grant Partners

This grant funded the development and implementation of CHIA's 2025 Massachusetts Health Information Survey (MHIS). The funding provided to this organization enabled them to maintain the same survey design and sample size targets as in prior years, enabling continued longitudinal analysis of the health insurance coverage and care experience in Massachusetts.  

This grant funded outreach to individuals who have experienced gaps in insurance coverage due to barriers identified through our policy and research work.  This outreach supported the inclusion of a qualitative component to a policy and research project, elevating the lived experience of members of our community in our work.

This grant funded outreach to individuals who have experienced gaps in insurance coverage due to barriers identified through our policy and research work.  This outreach supported the inclusion of a qualitative component to a policy and research project, elevating the lived experience of members of our community in our work.

This grant funded outreach to individuals and/or families who have been impacted by MassHealth estate recovery policies to complement an educational issue brief on this topic and elevate the voice of community members impacted by this issue.

This grant funded outreach to individuals who have experienced gaps in insurance coverage due to barriers identified through our policy and research work.  This outreach supported the inclusion of a qualitative component to a policy and research project, elevating the lived experience of members of our community in our work.

This grant funded the development of an issue brief summarizing the key components of Chapter 102 that will affect health and health care in Massachusetts.

This grant funded the development of a survey tool intended to longitudinally track the capacity of the outpatient behavioral health clinical workforce.

This grant funded the development and maintenance of of a centralized resource that documents and describes how Massachusetts, with support from the federal government, has implemented several policy and programmatic changes intended to promote continued access to health care services and health insurance coverage during the COVID-19 public health emergency. 

Project Directors: Megan Sandel, MD, MPH and Diana Cutts, MD

“Children's HealthWatch - Housing Vital Sign” is a one year project to develop a three-question screening tool to identify housing instability – to be called a “Housing Vital Sign.” While there is growing interest by health care providers in connecting patients to services that address social determinants of health, providers struggle to systematically identify which patients are in need of these services. There are currently no validated measures for universal use by health care providers for identifying housing hardships. This project aims to address that gap. Building on their experience developing and validating a two-question screening tool for food insecurity (Hunger Vital Sign™), the research team will leverage its database of nearly 60,000 patients to identify combinations of up to three housing instability questions with the highest association with adverse health and developmental outcomes among families with young children.

Project Director: Susan Crandall, PhD

“Inventory of Types of Social and Human Services in Massachusetts” is a one year project that will inform developing MassHealth accountable care organizations and others about the vast array of social and human services available in Massachusetts that support social determinants of health including: housing, food, transportation, fuel assistance, income assistance, and workforce development. The research team will develop a comprehensive overview of these programs to educate health care providers about how to readily leverage and refer to these programs when seeking to care for the holistic needs of their patients.

Project Director: Robert Seifert

“Churning in Massachusetts:  A Planning Study” is a one year project that will examine the feasibility of an updated study of “churning” in Massachusetts’ public health insurance programs, MassHealth and ConnectorCare. Churning is an important phenomenon in public programs because its existence indicates interruptions in health coverage, which often means breaks in continuity of care. The methodology for the planning project will include a literature review and a series of key informant interviews with consumer advocates, state officials, and provider and payer representatives. The information from these activities will then be synthesized into a preliminary research plan for a full study.

Project Director: Tricia McGinnis, MPP, MPH

“Best Practices and Lessons Learned from Partnerships between Health Care Providers and Community-based Organizations” is a one year grant that will support the development of an event featuring two health care provider and community-based organization (CBO) partnerships identified through a companion project funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation project. The partnerships highlighted will help inform how developing accountable care organizations in Massachusetts could establish similar partnerships to support the integration and coordination of social determinants of health with health care services. The featured health care provider/CBO partnerships will highlight lessons learned and explore the different types of activities and approaches to establish viable partnerships and drive improved patient outcomes. In addition, the grantee team will develop an issue brief that synthesizes best practices and lessons learned, highlighting actionable takeaways and operational activities for health care providers. The brief will also incorporate insights gleaned from engaging Massachusetts stakeholders during the event.

Project Director: Liora Beer“2017 Survey of Massachusetts Artists, Makers, and Entrepreneurs in Creative Industries” is a one year project that will examine the economic status and needs of artists and creative entrepreneurs, with a focus on health insurance coverage, access to health care services, and key social determinants of health such as housing. Artmorpheus represents artists and creative sector entrepreneurs, who – as demonstrated from a similar 1791 survey and report – are generally low and middle income individuals who disproportionately lack health insurance. The results from this survey will help identify if/what health coverage and access changes have occurred since 1791 and what opportunities and improvements remain. The results will be summarized in a report that will be broadly distributed to survey participants, local and regional arts service organizations, policymakers and government agency officials, and nonprofit agencies.

Project Directors: Thomas Byrne, PhD, Principal Investigator and Daniel Miller, PhD, Co-Investigator“A Data-Based Redesign of Health Care and Housing for People who Experience Chronic Homelessness” is a two year project that will assess the potential return on investment associated with several different housing intervention models for persons age 55 and above experiencing chronic homelessness. The research team plans to: describe the health care utilization patterns among Massachusetts residents over the age of 55 who are enrolled in Medicaid and experience chronic homelessness and compare those patterns to two other comparison groups, including a similar cohort who experiences homelessness on a temporary basis and a cohort who have not experienced homelessness; project health care costs over the next ten years associated with Massachusetts residents over the age of 55 who are chronically homeless and enrolled in Medicaid in the absence of a housing intervention; and analyze if/to what extent implementation of several different housing models targeted to chronically homeless adults aged 55 and older would lead to reductions in health care costs. Where applicable, the researchers will also estimate the potential return on investment associated with large-scale implementation of the housing models considered. This project will focus on Massachusetts but is expected to be part of a multi-state project involving other independent studies in California, New York, and Washington (pending funding for projects in each of these states), which share similar research objectives.

Project Directors: Laura Skopec, MS, Principal Investigator and Sharon Long, PhD, Co-Investigator“Community Matters: Understanding the Link Between Community Characteristics and High Uninsurance” is a one year project that will analyze the relationship between community socioeconomic, health system, and environmental conditions and the uninsured rate at the county and sub-county level. In addition, the researchers will assess how the characteristics of high uninsurance communities vary for particular subgroups (such as by age, gender, race and/or ethnicity). Through their work, which will rely on uninsured rates in Massachusetts based on the American Community Survey (ACS) files for 2010-2014 and Census Bureau data that will serve as proxies for community level socioeconomic, health system, and environmental conditions, the team will provide insight into the community characteristics associated with high uninsurance rates. The research team proposes to look at “outlier” communities – those that would be expected to have high levels of uninsurance based on their socioeconomic, health system and environmental conditions but do not, as well as those communities that would be expected to have low levels of uninsurance but do not.