Last Update: 05/2025
The Health Care Financing Initiative fosters research and engagement between our students and faculty, legislative and policymaking leaders, and industry leaders in the areas of health economics, health care financing and public policy.The McCourt School established the Health Care Financing Initiative (HCFI) in June 2018 with the generous support of the Institute for Critical Care Foundation.
Advancing Maternal and Infant Health Research Through Data Interoperability
July 3rd, 2025
This blog highlights our work on integrating maternal and neonatal data systems as part of the Safe Babies Safe Moms (SBSM) initiative. By linking clinical, billing, and appointment records under a unified mother-baby dataset, we demonstrate how internal interoperability can lay the groundwork for more effective care models and data-driven maternal health policy……
Return on Investment from Safe Babies Safe Moms; Evidence from the 2023 Cohort
June 27th, 2025
This study combines findings from several prior research reports prepared during the SBSM research program. We have extended our empirical work on cost-effectiveness into a nascent analysis of the potential societal return on investment in SBSM, by comparing the incremental program costs and savings immediately after delivery alongside the potential benefits from payer or societal view.…
Stewardship & Sustainability: An Economic Evaluation Plan for Pediatric Food Security and Financial Health Interventions
June 18th, 2025
This framework was developed to address the need for robust, policy-relevant evidence on the viability of integrating social interventions into pediatric primary care. Findings show that these programs can generate measurable financial and health-related value, offering a foundation for integration, scalability, and long-term sustainability……
Analysis of Multiple Gestation Pregnancies within a Cohort of Mom-Baby Dyads
March 8th, 2025
Many scholars have researched healthcare costs and maternal outcomes associated with singleton and multiple births. The results demonstrate significant variations in prematurity rates, morbidity, mortality, and length of hospital stay…
MedStar Health’s Safe Babies Safe Moms Program Featured in NEJM Catalyst
February 28th, 2025
A new study, D.C. Safe Babies Safe Moms: A Novel, Multigenerational Model to Reduce Maternal and Infant Health Disparities, has been published in The New England Journal of Medicine Catalyst,…
Research and Impact at Washington Hospital Center Matters to Moms and Babies in DC
February 14th, 2025
I’m having a moment of reflection upon approaching an important milestone in our research with Safe Babies Safe Moms, in partnership between MedStar, Georgetown, and several community organizations, funded by the generosity of the Clark Foundation.…
Prepaying Your Baby’s Birth? New Healthcare Provider Trend Highlights Rising Costs and Financial Impacts for Patients, Families
January 10th, 2025
A recent article by KFF Health News highlighted a growing trend in maternity care: Pregnant individuals are being asked to prepay thousands of dollars for prenatal and delivery services before their due dates.…
After the Pandemic, Nurses and Other Healthcare Workers Are Demanding More … And Getting It
December 4th, 2024
From 2022 to late 2024, thousands of healthcare workers in nearly twenty states have walked off the job, demanding better compensation, higher staffing levels, and more responsive management.…
Societal Cost and Benefit from Safe Babies Safe Moms: Towards Measuring Social Return on Investment
December 1st, 2024
This study combines findings from several prior research reports prepared during the SBSM research program. We have extended our empirical work on cost-effectiveness into a nascent analysis of the potential societal return on investment in SBSM, by comparing the incremental program costs and savings immediately after delivery alongside the potential benefits from payer or societal view.…
HCFI Team Returns to the MedStar Health and Georgetown University Research & Education Symposium 2024
October 29th, 2024
Aditi, Dr. Davis, Rehman, and Yetong represented our SBSM Health Economics research at the 2024 conference. On Monday, April 29, 2024, the Safe Babies & Safe Moms (SBSM) team showcased…
Continuity between Prenatal and Labor and Delivery Care Serving a High-Risk Urban Population
October 30th, 2023
This brief study measures continuity between prenatal and delivery care in Safe Babies Safe Moms’ (SBSM) population and explores the association of that continuity to patient demographics and health history, birth outcomes, and delivery costs in SBSM’s inaugural year.…
HCFI joins MedStar’s Safe Babies Safe Moms Team to Showcase Our Health Economics Research
October 28th, 2023
In May 2023, our team, lead by Dr. Davis and Dr. DeLeire, presented a poster with early research observations at the the MedStar Health-Georgetown University Research and Education…
Looking Back To Move Forward
September 19th, 2022
A compilation of all HCFI’s publications featured in the COVID-19 Post Acute collection, organized around four overarching themes. …
COVID-19 Continues to Intensify Long-Standing Nursing and Staffing Shortages (Long-Term Care Workforce 2022)
April 25th, 2022
Providers, as well as state and federal policy makers are grappling with rapid innovations to restore adequate staff during the pandemic and beyond.…
Medical Debt…Another Risk for Low-Wage Essential Health Care Workers
March 7th, 2022
Relief from Racial Disparities in Medical Debt and Medical Financial Insecurity Add to the Reasons to Restructure Low-Wage “Essential” Health Care Jobs March 4, 2022 Carol B. Davis, PhD,…
