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Nonemergency medical transportation benefits, often using smartphone application-based ridesharing services, are increasingly being offered as part of population health management programs. However, the impact of these programs on health care use and costs remains understudied. We conducted a mixed-methods evaluation of a nonemergency medical transportation benefit offered to members of a Medicare accountable care organization (ACO) within a large academic health system, the UNC Health Alliance ACO. Participation in the transportation program was associated with a greater number of per person per year outpatient visits (9.2) and higher outpatient spending ($4,420) than in a comparison group. However, there was no difference in inpatient admissions or emergency department visits, and the program was not cost saving. Qualitative analyses revealed that participants were highly satisfied with the program, reporting that it eased financial burdens and made them feel safer, more empowered, and better able to take control of their health. These findings suggest that although transportation programs are commonly introduced as ways to contain health care spending, it may be better to think of them as programs to improve health care access for people facing difficult circumstances.

Delivering food to nutritionally vulnerable patients is important for addressing these patients' social determinants of health. However, it is not known whether food delivery programs can reduce the use of costly health services and decrease medical spending among these patients. We sought to determine whether home delivery of either medically tailored meals or nontailored food reduces the use of selected health care services and medical spending in a sample of adults dually eligible for Medicare and Medicaid. Compared with matched nonparticipants, participants had fewer emergency department visits in both the medically tailored meal program and the nontailored food program. Participants in the medically tailored meal program also had fewer inpatient admissions and lower medical spending. Participation in the nontailored food program was not associated with fewer inpatient admissions but was associated with lower medical spending. These findings suggest the potential for meal delivery programs to reduce the use of costly health care and decrease spending for vulnerable patients.

Understanding how health care system structures, processes, and available resources facilitate and/or hinder the delivery of quality cancer care is imperative, especially given the rapidly changing health care landscape. The emerging field of cancer care delivery research (CCDR) focuses on how organizational structures and processes, care delivery models, financing and reimbursement, health technologies, and health care provider and patient knowledge, attitudes, and behaviors influence cancer care quality, cost, and access and ultimately the health outcomes and well-being of patients and survivors. In this article, we describe attributes of CCDR, present examples of studies that illustrate those attributes, and discuss the potential impact of CCDR in addressing disparities in care. We conclude by emphasizing the need for collaborative research that links academic and community-based settings and serves simultaneously to accelerate the translation of CCDR results into practice. The National Cancer Institute recently launched its Community Oncology Research Program, which includes a focus on this area of research., (© 2015 by American Society of Clinical Oncology.)