Research and Evaluation
The IPHPRP Research and Evaluation Core develops and implements program evaluations to answer questions regarding their relevance and effectiveness.
Our team has been evaluating public programs in Iowa and beyond since 1991, ranging in scale from single health centers to state-wide Medicaid. We utilize a variety of methods—from outcome analysis, to surveys, to environmental scans—in an effort to attain the most comprehensive understanding possible.
Evaluation of Iowa’s Medicaid Expansion
Our research and evaluation team serves as the independent evaluator for Iowa’s 1115 demonstration waiver: Iowa Health and Wellness Plan (IWP), Iowa’s version of the Medicaid Expansion allowed under the Affordable Care Act. IWP provides Medicaid coverage to non-categorically eligible adults with incomes up to 138 percent of the federal poverty level. The demonstration originally began on January 1, 2014, and is in the second 5-year extension.
There are currently seven key areas of investigation within the evaluation:
- Healthy Behaviors Incentive program
- Dental Wellness Plan
- Waiver of retroactive eligibility
- Cost sharing
- Cost and sustainability
- Waiver of non-emergency medical transportation
- Member experiences
Other projects
- Evaluation of the Iowa Medicaid Health Home Program
- Evaluation of Federally funded Iowa Certified Community Behavioral Health Centers (CCBHC)
- Utilization of Medical and Dental Services for Children and Adults with Intellectual/Developmental Disabilities
- Evaluation of Iowa’s Integrated Health Homes for Individuals with Serious Mental Illness
- Evaluation of the State Innovation Model
- Evaluation of PREP, Iowa’s Adolescent Pregnancy Prevention Program
- Evaluation of School Meals in Iowa
- Rural Families Speak about Health, Iowa Latinx Family Health Project and COVID project (2014-now, with ISU)
- Equity Implemented Partnerships with Iowa City Community School District
- Dental Care Anywhere
Expertise
- Conceptual research development
- Quantitative analysis
- Qualitative data collection and analysis
- Interviews, focus groups
- Coding
- Network analysis
- Mixed methods studies
- Surveys
- Item (question) development and testing
- Instrument development and testing
- Methodology development and evaluation
- Mixed-mode surveys
- Sampling and weighting
- Environmental scans
- Data visualization
- GIS (geocoding, geospatial analysis, visualization)
- Data acquisition and processing
- Identifying appropriate datasets
- Data use agreements, security compliance, etc.
- Web scraping
- Data cleaning
- Database design
