Health Services Researcher Receives New Investigator Grant from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation

Two-year grant aims to evaluate how COVID-19 pandemic policies affected medication treatment, outcomes, and costs for youth with ADHD.

By Becky Ceraul
October 7, 2024

A health services researcher with the University of Maryland School of Pharmacy’s (UMSOP) Patient-Drive Values in Health Care Evaluation (PAVE) center has received a first-time investigator grant from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation’s Health Data for Action (HD4A) program. Alejandro Amill-Rosario, PhD, MPH, a research associate with PAVE, received a nearly $100,000 grant to investigate how the expansion of COVID-19 pandemic telehealth policies under the federal Public Health Emergency (PHE) designation affected health care utilization and medication treatment, outcomes, and costs for youth with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD).

The HD4A program aims to reduce the barriers often faced in accessing rich data by serving as a conduit between data owners and interested researchers. It funds first-time investigators researching topics related to health services research, economics, sociology, program evaluation, political science, public policy, public health, public administration, law, business administration, or other related fields​. H4DA-funded projects are supported by Academy Health.

“The federal PHE policy ensured health care access during the COVID-19 pandemic,” says Amill-Rosario. “The Medicaid and private payer policy changes implemented expanded reimbursement for telehealth and telemental health, increasing the capacity to care for those in need. There is less known about how this change impacted health care access, quality, and spending for youth with ADHD. Our project will help provide the information needed to better understand how the PHE policy reimbursement rollback affects access to care.”

Amill-Rosario’s study focuses on youth with ADHD and aims to assess the PHE changes in the Medicaid and private-payer context. The study will determine the immediate impact of the PHE and telehealth policy on ADHD-related medication and health care access in youth, ADHD care quality, and health care spending. The study will use the Colorado All-Payer Claims Database from 2018 to 2023.

“This project provides insights into whether the transition to telehealth improved access to ADHD medication use, the quality of care, continuity of care, and costs of that care, particularly for the underserved and disadvantaged,” says Amill-Rosario. “By identifying the effects of these policies, the study can better inform policy decisions on retaining or expanding telehealth reimbursement and supporting more efficient use of health care resources.”

Amill-Rosario’s current project is motivated by previous research on the effects of reimbursement policies on telemental health utilization and the psychotropic medication patterns after the COVID-19 pandemic. “The findings from our research, coupled with a steep increase in telemental health utilization one- and two-years after the onset of the pandemic suggest the need to better understand the broader impact of virtual medication monitoring on ADHD quality of care measures,” he says.

The project aims to develop recommendations for health systems, policymakers, and payers, will support Colorado reimbursement decisions, and inform statewide policies for ADHD behavioral services.

Collaborators on the project are Susan dosReis, PhD, professor and vice chair for research in P-SHOR and co-director of PAVE at UMSOP; Roderick Rose, PhD, of the University of Maryland School of Social Work; and the Center for Improving Value in Health Care.

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