Urban Institute

About: Urban Institute is a nonprofit organization based out in Washington D.C., District of Columbia, United States. It is known for research contribution in the topics: Medicaid & Population. The organization has 927 authors who have published 2330 publications receiving 86426 citations.

A Different Kind of New Federalism? The Health Insurance Portability And Accountability Act of 1996

Abstract: The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) of 1996 has been praised and criticized for asserting federal authority to regulate health insurance We review the history of federalism and insurance regulation and find that HIPAA is less of a departure from traditional federal authority than it is an application of existing tools to meet evolving health policy goals This interpretation could clarify future health policy debates about appropriate federal and state responsibilities We also report on the insurance environments and the HIPAA implementation choices of thirteen states We conclude with criteria for judging the success of HIPAA and the evolving federal/state partnership in health insurance regulation

Reducing intimate partner violence: an evaluation of a comprehensive justice system‐community collaboration*

Abstract: Research Summary In 1999, three communities were selected to participate in a research demonstration designed to test the feasibility and impact of a coordinated response to intimate partner violence that involved the courts and justice agencies in a central role. The primary goals of the Judicial Oversight Demonstration (JOD) were to increase victim safety, hold offenders accountable, and reduce repeat offending using coordinated community services and integrated justice system policies in intimate partner violence court cases. The partnerships differed from earlier coordinated community responses to domestic violence by placing special focus on the role of the court, specifically the judge, to facilitate offender accountability in collaboration with both nonprofit service providers and other criminal justice agencies. This article presents the results of an impact evaluation of this demonstration in all sites. The demonstration received mostly positive responses from justice system agencies, service providers, offenders, and victims. Improvements were made in offender monitoring, consistent sanctioning, and increased supervision. However, these changes did not translate into gains in victim perceptions of their safety or into reductions in repeat violence in all sites. Policy Implications The demonstration had minimal impact on changing offender attitudes and behavior. The mixed results of the evaluation indicate that the most effective justice system responses to intimate partner violence must include a focus on protecting victims, close monitoring of offenders, and rapid responses with penalties when violations of court-ordered conditions are detected. Indications were found that JOD strategies were effective for some subgroups, including younger offenders with fewer ties to the victim and offenders with extensive arrest histories. The observed reductions in intimate partner violence in selected subgroups in the JOD sites may suggest a fruitful way to begin designing new intervention strategies, including prevention programs for men and women.

Chapter 1: Policy Instruments in Education

Abstract: The field of public policy has become increasingly complex in recent years. The field was long concerned with the nature of decision making by public officials and public bodies and implementation of the resulting decisions by public-sector organizations. But continued growth in government expenditures and demands for better performance have brought about an array of new policy levers and policy partners. As Lester Salamon (2002) put it:

Case-Managed Reentry and Employment: Lessons from the Opportunity to Succeed Program:

Abstract: The Opportunity to Succeed (OPTS) program was designed to reduce substance abuse relapse and criminal recidivism by providing comprehensive, case-managed reentry services to felony offenders who had drug offense histories. This article describes how a process and impact evaluation of the multisite OPTS program illuminates the importance of employment and related services for returning prisoners. The process component documented high levels of employment service utilization and referrals. The impact component—which utilized an experimental design—found that compared to probation and parole clients under routine supervision, OPTS clients had significantly higher levels of full-time employment during the first year after prison release. In turn, high levels of employment were associated with reductions in self-reported commission of person and property crimes, as well as reductions in drug dealing during a one-year follow-up period. The article highlights the evaluation findings and discusses challenges that...