The AWARD Network is developing a research-ready harmonized dataset of policies and programs that affect the demand, supply, working conditions, and skills of direct care workers. The data compendium will be accompanied by detailed documentation that includes references to primary data sources. Some information will be compiled into a database, and all data elements will be accompanied by a detailed data codebook and manual that explains each variable, its source, its definition, and any caveats.
Here are examples of policies and programs that the data compendium will focus on:
- State Medicaid waiver programs
- Wage pass-through laws
- Consumer-directed models of care that have been established in each state
- Training regulations for direct care workers
- Staffing regulations for nursing homes and assisted living facilities
- Medicare-Medicaid Enrollees (Dual Eligibles)
- Regulations regarding the tasks that direct care workers can provide
For each policy area, we will
- Describe the policy and introduce how the policy is applied in each state: We will refer to policies and reports from government and research institutes.
- List datasets related to the policy area: We will list datasets and their brief descriptions, including the time period of data collections, tags of related topics, type of dataset (public/proprietary), list of related variables, examples of published journal articles using the dataset, relevant links, limitations of using the dataset, and whether the dataset will be included in our harmonized dataset.
- Organize harmonized dataset: We will organize and compile some datasets related to the policy area in Excel sheets for users to download, including technical documents (list of variables and their information) and research-ready data.
More information will come soon.