Can Diffuse Delivery System Reforms Improve Population Health? A Study of the State Innovation Models Initiative

We examine the effects of the State Innovation Models (SIM) on population-level health status. The SIM initiative provided $250 million to six states in 2013 for delivery system reforms. We use data from the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System for the years 2010 -- 2016 to compare health of the populations in 6 SIM states to 15 states that were not involved in any aspects of SIM. We examine changes in health using an event study design. We develop a Latent Class Profile model that takes multiple measures of latent health into a common, latent health status to study the effect of the intervention. Such models can yield informative estimates where separate estimation of measures do not. We find that individuals in states that implemented SIM saw significant improvements in health across a number policy-relevant subpopulations.