LeaAnne DeRigne

Medical home and out-of-pocket medical costs for children with special health care needs.

OBJECTIVE: We examined key factors that affect out-of-pocket medical expenditures per

Workers Without Paid Sick Leave Less Likely To Take Time Off For Illness Or Injury Compared To Those With Paid Sick Leave

1000 of household income for children with special health care needs (CSHCN) with a broad range of conditions, controlling for insurance type and concentrating on the potentially moderating role of the medical home. METHODS: A Heckman selection model was used to estimate whether the medical home influenced out-of-pocket medical costs per

Legislative Advocacy and Social Work Education: Models and New Strategies

1000 of household income for children covered by either private or public health insurance. Data from the 2005–2006 National Survey of CSHCN (N = 31 808) were used. RESULTS: For families that incurred out-of-pocket medical costs for their CSHCN, these costs represented 2.2% to 3.9% of income. Both insurance type and the medical home had significant effects on out-of-pocket costs. Lower out-of-pocket medical costs per

Paid sick leave and preventive health care service use among U.S. working adults

1000 of income were incurred by children with public insurance and those receiving care coordination services. CONCLUSIONS: Families with CSHCN incur lower out-of-pocket medical costs when their children receive health care in a setting in which the care-coordination component of the medical home is in place.

Teaching Social Policy: Integration of Current Legislation and Media Resources

Paid sick leave is an important employer-provided benefit that helps people obtain health care for themselves and their dependents. But paid sick leave is not universally available to US workers. Little is known about paid sick leave and its relationship to health behaviors. Contrary to public health goals to reduce the spread of illness, our findings indicate that in 2013 both full- and part-time working adults without paid sick leave were more likely than workers with that benefit to attend work when ill. Those without paid sick leave were 3.0 times more likely to forgo medical care for themselves and 1.6 times more likely to forgo medical care for their family compared to working adults with paid sick leave benefits. Moreover, the lowest-income group of workers without paid sick leave were at the highest risk of delaying and forgoing medical care for themselves and their family members. Policy makers should consider the potential public health implications of their decisions when contemplating guaranteed sick leave benefits.

Employment Change Among Married Parents of Children With Special Health Care Needs

The National Association of Social Workers promotes legislative advocacy through Lobby Days throughout the country. Yet legislative advocacy can be an under-taught and underutilized skill set for social work students. This article describes a variety of pedagogical models and strategies that social work programs can employ to prepare students for legislative advocacy experiences, including Lobby Days. CSWE’s Educational Policy and Accreditation Standards are applied to the educational strategies. In addition, practical strategies to prepare for and implement Lobby Day are shared.

Unintentional Prescription Drug Non-Compliance for Financial Reasons in Families with A Child with A Limiting Health Condition

Managing work and health care can be a struggle for many American workers. This paper explored the relationship between having paid sick leave and receiving preventive health care services, and hypothesized that those without paid sick leave would be less likely to obtain a range of preventive care services. In 2016, cross-sectional data from a sample of 13,545 adults aged 18-64 with current paid employment from the 2015 National Health Interview Survey (NHIS) were examined to determine the relationship between having paid sick leave and obtaining eight preventive care services including: (1) blood pressure check; (2) cholesterol check; (3) fasting blood sugar check; (4) having a flu shot; (5) having seen a doctor for a medical visit; (6) getting a Pap test; (7) getting a mammogram; (8) getting tested for colon cancer. Findings from multivariable logistic regressions, holding 10 demographic, work, income, and medical related variables stable, found respondents without paid sick leave were significantly less likely to report having used six of eight preventive health services in the last 12months. The significant findings remained robust even for workers who had reported having been previously told they had risk factors related to the preventive services. These findings support the idea that without access to paid sick leave, American workers risk foregoing preventive health care which could lead to the need for medical care at later stages of disease progression and at a higher cost for workers and the American health care system as a whole.

Reaching Haitian Americans Living With HIV/AIDS: Met and Unmet Health Care Needs

Social work students enter the field of social work for many reasons—from wanting to become clinicians to wanting to advocate for a more socially just world. Social policy classes can be the ideal courses to provide instruction on conducting research on current policy issues. Teaching students about policy advocacy can lead to a class rich with practical application for future legislative action. This article summarizes methods of teaching social policy courses at both the undergraduate and graduate level. It includes details about resources (e.g., newspapers, news programs, blogs, Web sites) that students and instructors can use to track current policy topics.

How does paid sick leave relate to health care affordability and poverty among US workers

Over one in five households with children has at least one child with a special health care need (CSHCN). Child health caregiving can bleed into paid work time. This research analyzes what factors influence work decisions (who reduces work and by how much) in married-couple families with CSHCN. This article uses data from the Medical Expenditure Panel Survey to examine the specifics of changes in parental work status and a comparison of family/work trade-offs made by parents in families with and without a CSHCN. Results indicate that mothers are more likely to experience negative work changes than fathers. Both mothers and fathers with CSHCN are more likely to report missing work than parents of children without special health care needs. Overall, when children receive treatment in a primary care practice that serves as a medical home, parents are less likely to experience negative employment changes.

Attributions About Mindfulness and Religion Among University Students

Area probability sampling via U.S. postal addresses was used to select households from seven high poverty U.S. metropolitan areas. In person and telephone interviews with one adult household member were used to determine the odds of delaying or failing to fill a needed prescription for families with a child member with a limiting health condition. Logistic models indicate families with a child with a limiting health condition are 1.57 times more likely to delay or fail to fill a needed prescription, and families with more than one child with a limiting condition are 1.85 times more likely. Implications are set forth.