Quarterly Department

Original Scholarship

Content Type:

  • Quarterly Article

    State Public Coverage of Pregnant Undocumented Immigrants and Prenatal Insurance Uptake

    August 2025 Meghan Bellerose Linqing Zheng Arielle Desir Rachel E. Fabi Laura R. Wherry Maria W. Steenland

    Health insurance coverage increases access to recommended pregnancy care, but undocumented immigrants are not eligible for pregnancy Medicaid coverage without state uptake of alternative policy options. Twenty-four states and the District of Columbia (DC) offer public insurance to undocumented immigrants who are income eligible for pregnancy Medicaid through the Children’s Health Insurance Program From-Conception-to-End-of-Pregnancy option or state funds. More

  • Quarterly Article

    The Significance of Definitions in Determining the Level of Community Benefits for Nonprofit Hospitals

    August 2025 Hossein Zare Gerard Anderson

    The American Hospital Association determined that in 2022 nonprofit hospitals spent $129 billion on community benefits. This is more than the entire budget for the US public health service. Different organizations estimate different amounts of community benefit spending depending on their definition of community benefit. More

  • Quarterly Article

    People Versus Product: Conditions for Success for Community Health Workers as Sustainable Members of the Public Health Workforce

    August 2025 John Billimek Melina Michelen Patricia J. Cantero Noraima Chirinos Rocio Salazar Mary Anne Foo Samantha Peralta Brittany N. Morey Jacqueline J. Chow Salvador Zarate Sora Park Tanjasiri Alana M. W. Lebrón

    Community health workers (CHWs) are frontline public health workers who support the well-being and capacity building of residents disproportionately affected by health inequities. The purpose of this study is to examine diverse perspectives on the conditions for CHW success as CHWs were engaged in rapidly implemented, highly responsive education, vaccination, and recovery efforts during the COVID-19 pandemic in a large county in Southern California. More

  • A Case Study of Maine’s Risk-Based Firearm Removal Law

    Quarterly Article

    A Case Study of Maine’s Risk-Based Firearm Removal Law

    August 2025 David B. Joyce Jeffrey Swanson

    Extreme Risk Protection Orders (ERPOs) are an effective legal tool for reducing firearm suicide by temporarily removing access to firearms for certain individuals who exhibit dangerous behavior. Unlike most state laws restricting access to firearms based on status, ERPOs are predicated on the assessment of future risk of harm to self or other, as determined by civil court file finding. Emerging research indicates that separating those in crisis from lethal means reduces firearm mortality. We assess Maine’s unique approach and consider whether it is a replicable policy option for other states or should be modified to comport with other states’ more broadly applicable model. More

  • Quarterly Article

    Turf Wars: How Growth and Competitive Shocks Have Affected the Performance and Stability of Community Health Centers

    July 2025 Justin Markowski

    Context: Community health centers (CHCs) are a critical and growing part of the health care safety net, doubling over the past 15 years to expand access to essential health care services to over 31 million patients in traditionally underserved communities. However, increasingly, CHCs have opened care delivery locations in communities already served by another CHC, potentially creating competitive markets with unknown implications for how this safety net operates. More

  • Quarterly Article

    Lobbying in the Shadows: A Comparative Analysis of Government Lobbyist Registers

    July 2025 Jennifer Lacy-Nichols Hedeeyeh Baradar Eric Crosbie Katherine Cullerton

    nformation about lobbying is crucial to alert the public about undue influence in government decision making. Yet, government disclosures of lobbying activities are rare internationally and vary considerably in their completeness and accessibility. Building on a framework to measure lobbying transparency, this study benchmarked national government disclosures to understand what information was shared and to develop recommendations to strengthen political transparency. More

  • Quarterly Article

    Incarceration and Psychiatric Emergency Department Visits Among Black Americans

    July 2025 Abhery Das Michael Esposito Tim A. Bruckner Hedwig Lee

    The justice system incarcerates nearly 2.3 million individuals in the United States. Black Americans comprise 40% of those incarcerated despite representing less than 15% of the population. Theoretical work posits that mass incarceration can erode social capital by straining social and family networks as well as inducing carceral churn and coercive mobility within Black communities. Scholars report that greater incarceration may influence population-level health, specifically in communities of color. However, previous work does not address whether incarceration, as well as the racial disparity in incarceration, corresponds with psychiatric help seeking in the Black community. More

  • US State Policies Regarding Social Media: Do Policies Match the Evidence?

    Quarterly Article

    US State Policies Regarding Social Media: Do Policies Match the Evidence?

    June 2025 Marco Thimm-Kaiser Katherine Keyes

    The potential adverse effects of social media use for adolescents have received substantial attention. In response, a growing number of state-level social media regulations are emerging in the United States. These policy interventions are being implemented in the context of mixed scientific evidence, forcing policymakers to weigh the need for proactive regulation against the limitations of extant research. We explore policymakers’ publicly stated rationales for social media regulations and contextualize their claims within extant scientific literature. More

  • Quarterly Article

    Longitudinal Associations From US State/Local Police and Social Service Expenditures to Suicides and Police-Perpetrated Killings Between Black and White Residents

    June 2025 Devin English Ty A. Robinson Lori S. Hoggard Felix M. Muchomba Sharifa Z. Williams Joel C. Cantor Paul R. Duberstein Brett M. Millar

    Reducing police expenditures and increasing housing expenditures may decrease Black–White inequities in years of potential life lost to suicide and police-perpetrated killing. More

  • Facilitators of, Barriers to, and Innovations in the Implementation of the Trauma Recovery Center Model for Underserved Victims of Violent Crime in Los Angeles County

    Quarterly Article

    Facilitators of, Barriers to, and Innovations in the Implementation of the Trauma Recovery Center Model for Underserved Victims of Violent Crime in Los Angeles County

    June 2025 Annette M. Dekker Adrian Yen Andrea Larco Canizalez Yesenia Perez David Salazar Bita Ghafoori Dorit Saberi Breena R. Taira

    The Trauma Recovery Center (TRC) model brings comprehensive care to underserved victims of crime, with improvements in PTSD symptoms and quality of life. Funding concerns were the central limitation in model implementation according to TRC staff. More