Uses data from the Community Tracking Study to compare consumer responses on key attributes of their health plans with information provided directly by the plans, finding that consumers tend to overestimate plan restrictions, especially those on access to medical specialists.

Based on a one-year follow-up survey with a representative sample of over 400 single-mother TANF clients, the report examines how various obstacles to employment constrained clients’ employability and influenced their experiences with welfare-to-work activities and supportive services. Also...

Describes the design of a national study of USDA's Summer Food Service Program, created in 1975 to provide children from low-income families with nutritious meals when school is not in session, including appropriate sample and data collection methodologies, analytic methods, and study costs. On...

Summarizes the history of the acceptance of estimates based on sampling techniques in the U.S. legal system, and reviews one case where experts disagreed on the reliability of this type of estimate.

Reductions in the fees paid by Medicare to physicians have raised concerns that beneficiaries in some areas may have problems obtaining needed care in a timely manner. This report suggests that these reductions have not led to marked restrictions in access to care, even though the study examined...

Millions of U.S. children participate in the National School Lunch Program each day, receiving free or reduced-price food that makes an important contribution to their overall nutrition. But concern has mounted that many approved as eligible may in fact be ineligible because their family income...

Provides a timely profile of how managed care plans—especially those at financial risk—structure their networks and pay providers, finding that contractual arrangements between plans and providers are complex and diverse across and within networks. Furthermore, HMO contracts with...

Describes the design of a national study of USDA's Summer Food Service Program, created in 1975 to provide children from low-income families with nutritious meals when school is not in session, including appropriate sample and data collection methodologies, analytic methods, and study costs. On...