Scholars@Duke
Rebecca Garr Whitaker

Rebecca Garr Whitaker

Adjunct Assistant Professor in the Duke-Margolis Institute for Health Policy
Duke-Margolis Institute for Health Policy
rebecca.whitaker@duke.edu
JB Duke Hotel 230 Science Dr, Duke-Margolis Center for Healt, Durham, NC 27708

Scholarly Works - Journal articles

Focus on postpartum care transitions: a pathway to improve perinatal health

Journal article Health Affairs Scholar · May 1, 2026 Maternal morbidity and mortality rates are rising in the United States, with many of those deaths occurring in the postpartum period (defined as up to 1-year after birth), often from preventable causes. Traditional postpartum care includes a single follow- ... Full text Cite

Amplifying community perspectives in Medicaid policymaking: findings from North Carolina.

Journal article Health Aff Sch · February 2026 INTRODUCTION: In the midst of sweeping federal and state policy changes that will significantly impact Medicaid, effectively integrating community feedback into Medicaid policymaking will require identifying what Medicaid beneficiaries want and need to be ... Full text Link to item Cite

Scaling What Works: Evidence-based Prevention, Data, and Collaboration in North Carolina's Medicaid Transformation.

Journal article N C Med J · December 23, 2025 NC Medicaid's investments in whole-person care and data infrastructure have driven meaningful progress in improving health at lower costs. Amid growing fiscal pressures and upcoming policy reforms, continuing to advance evidence-based prevention, strengthe ... Full text Link to item Cite

Investing in a Healthier North Carolina: Lessons Learned from North Carolina Medicaid Reforms.

Journal article North Carolina medical journal · October 2025 North Carolina Medicaid's efforts to "buy health, not just health care" through whole-person health reforms, including the Healthy Opportunities Pilots, have made significant contributions toward "Healthy North Carolina 2030" goals. Continued multistakehol ... Full text Cite

How Providers, Health System Leaders, and States Can Work Together to Align Disparate Policy Efforts to Address Health-Related Social Needs: Learning from North Carolina.

Journal article N C Med J · July 30, 2025 BACKGROUND: Under the Biden Administration, policy authorities and programs working to address health-related social needs (HRSNs) expanded across the United States. Despite major investments and initiatives to address HRSNs, they are still largely dispara ... Full text Link to item Cite

Preventive Care Needs of the North Carolina Medicaid Expansion Population.

Journal article AJPM Focus · February 2025 INTRODUCTION: Effective December 2023, North Carolina expanded Medicaid eligibility to cover individuals up to 138% of the Federal Poverty Level. The authors sought to understand the preventive care needs of the newly Medicaid-eligible population. METHODS: ... Full text Link to item Cite

Telehealth Utilization Among Adult Medicaid Beneficiaries in North Carolina with Behavioral Health Conditions During the COVID-19 Pandemic.

Journal article J Racial Ethn Health Disparities · October 2024 OBJECTIVE: We examined factors associated with telehealth utilization during COVID-19 among adult Medicaid beneficiaries with behavioral health conditions. DATA SOURCES AND STUDY SETTING: NC Medicaid 2019-2021 beneficiary and claims data. STUDY DESIGN: Thi ... Full text Link to item Cite

What Explains Inequalities in Telehealth Utilization Among North Carolina Medicaid Beneficiaries?

Journal article Telemed J E Health · August 2024 Background: Increased availability of telehealth can improve access to health care. However, there is evidence of persistent disparities in telehealth usage, as well as among people from minoritized racial and ethnic groups and rural residents. The objecti ... Full text Link to item Cite

Addressing Housing-Related Social Needs Through Medicaid: Lessons From North Carolina's Healthy Opportunities Pilots Program.

Journal article Health Aff (Millwood) · February 2024 North Carolina Medicaid's Healthy Opportunities Pilots program is the country's first comprehensive program to evaluate the impact of paying community-based organizations to provide eligible Medicaid enrollees with an array of evidence-based services to ad ... Full text Open Access Link to item Cite

Describing Perspectives of Telehealth and the Impact on Equity in Access to Health Care from Community and Provider Perspectives: A Multimethod Analysis.

Journal article Telemed J E Health · January 2024 Introduction: The rapid adoption of telehealth as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic provided the opportunity to examine perceptions of health care access and use of telehealth for delivery of effective and equitable care in low-income and historically marg ... Full text Link to item Cite

Evaluating Telehealth Uptake Among North Carolina Medicaid Beneficiaries With Musculoskeletal Conditions: Insights From the COVID-19 Pandemic.

Journal article Med Care · November 1, 2023 BACKGROUND: The shift from in-person to virtual visits, known as telehealth (TH), during the COVID-19 pandemic was a significant change for North Carolina (NC) Medicaid beneficiaries seeking treatment for musculoskeletal (MSK) conditions, as remote care fo ... Full text Link to item Cite

Health Care Use and Spending Among Need-Based Subgroups of Medicare Beneficiaries With Full Medicaid Benefits.

Journal article JAMA Health Forum · May 5, 2023 IMPORTANCE: Beneficiaries dual eligible for Medicare and Medicaid account for a disproportionate share of expenditures due to their complex care needs. Lack of coordination between payment programs creates misaligned incentives, resulting in higher costs, ... Full text Link to item Cite

Medicaid Coverage Disruptions Among Children Enrolled in North Carolina Medicaid From 2016 to 2018.

Journal article JAMA Health Forum · December 2021 IMPORTANCE: Brief disruptions in insurance coverage among eligible participants are associated with poorer health outcomes for children. OBJECTIVE: To describe factors associated with coverage disruptions among children enrolled in North Carolina Medicaid ... Full text Link to item Cite

Comparing health care use and costs among new Medicaid enrollees before and during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Journal article BMC Health Serv Res · October 25, 2021 BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVE: To characterize health care use and costs among new Medicaid enrollees before and during the COVID pandemic. Results can help Medicaid non-expansion states understand health care use and costs of new enrollees in a period of enrol ... Full text Link to item Cite

Association Of Unemployment With Medicaid Enrollment By Social Vulnerability In North Carolina During COVID-19.

Journal article Health affairs (Project Hope) · September 2021 The COVID-19 pandemic precipitated an unemployment crisis in the US that surpassed the Great Recession of 2007-09 within the first three months of the pandemic. This article builds on the limited early evidence of the relationship between the pandemic and ... Full text Cite

State variation in effects of state social distancing policies on COVID-19 cases.

Journal article BMC Public Health · June 28, 2021 BACKGROUND: The novel coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) sickened over 20 million residents in the United States (US) by January 2021. Our objective was to describe state variation in the effect of initial social distancing policies and non-essential busi ... Full text Link to item Cite

Are Certain Health Centers Better Patient-Centered Medical Homes for People with Severe Mental Illness?

Journal article The Psychiatric quarterly · March 2021 Patient-centered medical homes based at federally-qualified health centers (FQHCs) can benefit patients with complex health needs, such as severe mental illness (SMI). However, little is known about FQHC characteristics associated with changes in health ca ... Full text Cite

Coincidence analysis: a new method for causal inference in implementation science.

Journal article Implement Sci · December 11, 2020 BACKGROUND: Implementation of multifaceted interventions typically involves many diverse elements working together in interrelated ways, including intervention components, implementation strategies, and features of local context. Given this real-world comp ... Full text Link to item Cite

Comparing Associations of State Reopening Strategies with COVID-19 Burden.

Journal article J Gen Intern Med · December 2020 BACKGROUND: The novel coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) infected over 5 million United States (US) residents resulting in more than 180,000 deaths by August 2020. To mitigate transmission, most states ordered shelter-in-place orders in March and reopenin ... Full text Link to item Cite

Correction to: Comparing Associations of State Reopening Strategies with COVID-19 Burden.

Journal article J Gen Intern Med · November 9, 2020 In the original version of this paper, an author was misidentified. The corrected author listing appears here, and has been updated in the online version. ... Full text Link to item Cite

Half of Rural Residents at High Risk of Serious Illness Due to COVID-19, Creating Stress on Rural Hospitals.

Journal article J Rural Health · September 2020 PURPOSE: During the COVID-19 epidemic, it is critical to understand how the need for hospital care in rural areas aligns with the capacity across states. METHODS: We analyzed data from the 2018 Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System to estimate the num ... Full text Link to item Cite

North Carolina's Health Care Transformation to Value: Progress to Date and Further Steps Needed.

Journal article North Carolina medical journal · May 2020 North Carolina has received national attention for its approach to health care payment and delivery reform. Importantly, payment reform alone is not enough to drive systematic changes in care delivery. We highlight the importance of progress in four comple ... Full text Cite

The Past Decade of Paying for Value: From the Affordable Care Act to COVID-19

Journal article North Carolina Medical Journal · January 1, 2020 The Affordable Care Act played a major role in transitioning American health care away from fee-for-service payment. We explore the spread of payment reforms since the implementation of the ACA, both nationally and in North Carolina; the corresponding effe ... Full text Cite

How Would Rural Hospitals Be Affected by Loss of the Affordable Care Act's Medicare Low-Volume Hospital Adjustment?

Journal article The Journal of rural health : official journal of the American Rural Health Association and the National Rural Health Care Association · April 2017 PurposeThe low-volume hospital (LVH) payment adjustment established in the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA) of 2010 is scheduled to sunset on October 1, 2017. The purpose of this analysis was: (1) to estimate the effect of the ACA ... Full text Cite

Colorectal cancer surgery outcomes for vulnerable patients in safety-net versus non-safety-net hospitals

Journal article Journal of Health Care for the Poor and Underserved · May 1, 2013 Extensive research documents disparities in health outcomes for vulnerable populations. Safety-net hospitals-those that serve a greater proportion of vulnerable patients with Medicaid or no insurance-may yield better outcomes for these vulnerable patients ... Full text Cite