Jacqueline Ellison’s research was published in Health Affairs

Jacqueline Ellison, assistant professor in the University of Pittsburgh School of Public Health, led a study recently published in Vol. 43, Issue 1 of the journal Health Affairs.

Medicare, which is the primary source of health insurance coverage for reproductive-age people with Social Security Disability Insurance, does not require contraceptive coverage for pregnancy prevention, and prior to this research little has been known about contraceptive use in traditional Medicare and Medicare Advantage. The Pitt study found a lower use of contraceptives in Medicare enrollees than among those on Medicaid.

Ellison is a faculty member in the Department of Health Policy and Management and Pitt’s Center for Innovative Research on Gender Health Equity (CONVERGE) in the Department of General Internal Medicine. The other Pitt contributors on the study are:

• Sabnum Pudasainy, senior data analyst in the School of Public Health
• Deirdre Quinn, assistant professor in the School of Medicine and research health scientist and core investigator at the Center for Health Equity Research and Promotion at VA Pittsburgh Healthcare System
• Sonya Borrero, director of CONVERGE and professor of medicine; clinical and translational science; and obstetrics, gynecology and reproductive sciences
• Iris Olson, CONVERGE center manager
• Qingwen Chen, former senior data analyst in the School of Public Health
• Marian Jarlenski, associate professor and vice chair for practice in the Department of Health Policy and Management and associate director of CONVERGE