Scarlett Wang

Adjunct Assistant Professor of Public Service

Contact Details

Scarlett Wang is an Adjunct Assistant Professor of Public Service of NYU’s Robert F. Wagner Graduate School of Public Service. She is also an Assistant Research Scientist and Analyst at the Health Evaluation and Analytics Lab (HEAL) at NYU Wagner. She is currently analyzing the patterns of health, criminal justice and homeless service system contact using the NYS Medicaid claims and Rikers Island admission data. Prior to joining HEAL, Scarlett was a teaching assistant and a research assistant at Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health. Scarlett has a Bachelor's degree in Applied Psychology and Sociology and a MPH in Epidemiology from Columbia University.

Courses

This is an advanced course for students who plan to become policy analysts. Students (a) extend their familiarity with methodologic issues, including research designs, measurement problems, and analytic approaches; (b) get hands-on experience with management, analysis, and presentation of data; and (c) develop skills in reading, critiquing, and reporting on policy-relevant research. The course is oriented toward developing the skills and tools that are used by junior policy analysts. There is a quite a bit of learning by doing, through data analysis, data presentation, and critiquing of research studies.

The with Professor Jan Blustein provides more information.

This course introduces students to basic statistical methods and their application to management, policy, and financial decision-making. The course covers the essential elements of descriptive statistics, univariate and bivariate statistical inference, and introduces multivariate analysis. In addition to covering statistical theory the course emphasizes applied statistics and data analysis. The primary goal of this course is to introduce these basic skills and encourage a critical approach to reviewing statistical findings and using statistical reasoning in decision making.

The with Professor Jan Blustein provides more information.

Research

2022

Scarlett Wang, Sherry Glied, Claudia Babcock, and Ajay Chaudry. Changes in the Public Charge Rule and Health of Mothers and Infants Enrolled in New York State's Medicaid Program, 2014‒2019. American Journal of Public Health, Volume 112 (December 2022), pp. 1747-1756.

2021

Abstract

Research Objective

People with a history of incarceration have high rates of physical and behavioral health conditions as well as increased hospitalizations and emergency department visits. This research extends the existing literature about the health profile of individuals with a history of justice involvement by examining patterns of Medicaid utilization and costs.

Study Design

We linked New York State Medicaid and New York City Department of Correction Data from 2012–2016 and examined patterns of jail utilization, health care utilization (including inpatient, emergency department, and outpatient use) and health care cost by categories of service, as well as the prevalence of chronic physical and mental health disorders. We selected two sets of comparisons, any jail contact vs. no jail contact and high jail contact vs. low jail contact.

Population Studied

Individuals with at least one jail admission in 2012 were defined as having any jail contact. Individuals with only one jail admission between 2012–2016 are defined as having low jail contact. Those who were in the top 10 percentile of number of jail admissions are defined as having high jail contact. The no jail contact group is defined as Medicaid recipients matched with individuals with any jail contact on age, sex, race/ethnicity, Medicare status and number of Medicaid enrollment months.

Principal Findings

Comparing to individuals with no jail contact, any jail contact was associated with a higher prevalence of both chronic physical and mental health conditions; those with any jail contact had a doubling in the risks of mortality and of health care resource use; the average number of hospitalizations was 4 times higher among people with any jail contact; people with jail contact had Medicaid costs that were 3 to 7 times greater, with inpatient costs largely driving these differences for people with the most frequent jail contact. Compared to individuals with low jail contact, individuals with high jail contact had drastically higher prevalence of both chronic physical and mental health conditions, triple the number of hospitalizations, and quadruple the number of emergency department visits. The annual inpatient expenditure of an individual with high jail contact is $12 k higher than that of an individual with low jail contact; total Medicaid expenditures of high contact individuals averages over $33 k per year and are twice as high as those of low contact individuals.

Conclusions

The prevalence of physical and mental health conditions was very high among individuals with high jail contact, as were their health care costs. Only a small fraction of costs for this group were for outpatient primary care, behavioral health treatment, and case management that could help to address these needs and prevent hospitalization.

Implications for Policy or Practice

These findings highlight the need for more effective health care engagement strategies for people with a history of incarceration. Specifically, preventative, primary care and behavioral health care services — particularly outpatient substance use services — that are tailored to the needs of this population could lead to more effective health care engagement, reduced health care costs, and improved health and well-being for individuals who have had some contact with NYC jails.

Primary Funding Source

The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.