Health Policy
Mental Health Research
Yuhua Bao, Ph.D., Assistant Professor of Public Health, studies health policies to promote effective depression treatment in primary care and other medical settings with a special focus on older patients. One of her recent projects investigates the effect of a collaborative depression care model in helping older patients initiate and adhere to antidepressant treatment in primary care. She is developing a research agenda in assessing the costs of implementing evidence-based depression care management in general medical settings and implications for payment and performance evaluation policies by Medicare and other payers.
Dr. Bao is funded by a Pfizer Scholar’s Grant in Health Policy to evaluate the comparative effectiveness and cost-effectiveness of alternative pharmacy benefit policies to improve adherence to antidepressant medication. Specifically, the study compares a policy that lowers patient out-of-pocket costs by means such as eliminating the coverage gap in Medicare Part D to policies that cover and/or provide medication therapy management. Another ongoing project, funded by NIMH, investigates the cost of implementing an evidence-based depression care management program among older patients receiving home health care, and the net financial implications for home health agencies under the Medicare Home Health Prospective Payment System. Dr. Bao works closely with colleagues at the Weill Cornell Advanced Center for Interventions and Services Research (ACISR) in the Department of Psychiatry.
