New Managed Care Findings Reported from Harvard University T.H. Chan School of Public Health (Using prescription drug data for timely assessments of state insurance coverage rates: a validation study): Managed Care

2026 JUL 08 (NewsRx) -- By a News Reporter-Staff News Editor at Insurance Daily News -- Current study results on Managed Care have been published. According to news reporting out of Boston, Massachusetts, by NewsRx editors, research stated, “Timely assessments of insurance coverage are limited by lags and unpredictable data availability. We assessed the performance of real-time prescription data as a proxy for state-level coverage changes.”

Financial support for this research came from The Commonwealth Fund.

Our news journalists obtained a quote from the research from the Harvard University T.H. Chan School of Public Health, “We analyzed correlations between quarterly state insurance coverage (Medicaid, private insurance, and uninsured) and counts of filled prescriptions per capita by payer (Medicaid, private insurance, and cash-pay/assistance programs) from 2013 to 2024. Regression models measured how predictive prescription counts were of within-state coverage changes. Medicaid prescriptions per capita were strongly correlated with Medicaid coverage (r = 0.62). Cash-pay prescriptions per capita were moderately correlated with uninsured rates (r = 0.49). Private coverage correlations were weak. Correlations were stronger for adults (r = 0.74 for Medicaid, r = 0. 52 for uninsured) than children. Among adults, each 10% within-state increase in Medicaid prescriptions was associated with a 7.5% relative increase (95% confidence interval [CI], 5.7%-9.3%) in Medicaid coverage; each 10% increase in cash-pay prescriptions was associated with a 2.5% increase (95% CI, 1.0%-4.1%) in uninsured rates. Real-time prescription drug data are moderately to highly correlated with state-level coverage changes in Medicaid and uninsured rates, particularly for adults.”

According to the news editors, the research concluded: “These data may be useful for timely assessments of upcoming policies affecting Medicaid coverage.”

This research has been peer-reviewed.

For more information on this research see: Using prescription drug data for timely assessments of state insurance coverage rates: a validation study. Health Affairs Scholar, 2026;4(6).

Our news journalists report that additional information may be obtained by contacting Adrianna McIntyre, Dept. of Health Policy and Management, Harvard University T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Boston, MA 02115, United States. Additional authors for this research include Benjamin N. Rome, Jinwoo Kim, Jihye Han, Aaron S. Kesselheim and Benjamin D. Sommers.

The direct object identifier (DOI) for that additional information is: https://doi.org/10.1093/haschl/qxag149. This DOI is a link to an online electronic document that is either free or for purchase, and can be your direct source for a journal article and its citation.

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