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News Releases
MARRTC Investigator Awarded Congressional Fellowship
Columbia, Mo. (July 20, 2000) - MARRTC's loss is Capitol Hill's gain - and Missouri's.
Kristofer Hagglund, Ph.D., an investigator with the Missouri Arthritis Rehabilitation Research and Training Center (MARRTC), just received a fellowship that will take him to the nation's capital to work, literally, on Capitol Hill.
Hagglund was awarded a Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Health Policy Fellowship. Only six health care researchers and physicians in the nation receive this annual, competitive honor.
Hagglund is the principal investigator of a MARRTC research project, which assesses the impact of different types of health care delivery systems (managed care versus fee-for-service) on persons with arthritis.
He is an associate professor at the Department of Physical Medicine & Rehabilitation at the University of Missouri.
For the nine-month fellowship, Hagglund will move to Washington, D.C., to take up his duties.
For three months, starting in September, Hagglund will take on the role of a student of health care issues and government. He will also learn the rules and regulations to migrate a bill from an idea to legislation signed by the president.
"I'll be meeting with experts to learn what's involved in developing the national health care legislation, how to improve access to high quality health care, how to control medical costs and other issues," Hagglund said.
Those experts will include key White House advisers and administrators of national health care agencies such as the Department of Health and Human Services. The fellows also will meet officials from private organizations such as insurance and managed care businesses plus advocacy agencies.
"We'll also be learning a lot about the legislative process," Hagglund noted.
Hagglund explained that for the remaining nine months of the appointment, the fellows work with a Congressional office to assist legislators on health care related issues.
"Most fellows end up working in a Senator's office, but working in a Representative's office or the Executive branch is not out of the question," Hagglund said.
Once assigned to an office on the Hill, Hagglund's tasks will include health-care issue research for a legislator who is trying to draft related legislation or policy. Hagglund's work also may involve writing speeches and attending Senate or House Committee meetings.
Hagglund hopes this variety and experience will be a future gain for Missouri.
"When I return to Missouri I hope to use some of my experience to participate in helping to solve some of Missouri's health-care problems," Hagglund said.
Project Update
Initial results show patient access to health care providers is similar in managed care vs. fee for service insurance plans.
For his stint in Washington, Hagglund will be taking with him significant previous health care knowledge and experience gained in Columbia.
His research for MARRTC currently includes studying the effects of managed-care health insurance on people with arthritis. He will turn over the reins of his MARRTC research project to another investigator for his nine-month stint in Washington, while remaining involved in a consulting role.
However, the study has already yielded some interesting results, Hagglund said.
The purpose of the study is to compare how managed-care health insurance plans vs. traditional fee-for-service health insurance plans serve the needs of adults with rheumatoid arthritis and osteoarthritis, two chronic, potentially debilitating diseases.
Rheumatoid arthritis affects about 2.1 million people in the United States and is characterized by chronic inflammation of the joint linings.
Osteoarthritis affects about 21 million Americans and is a disease of "wear and tear" of the joints.
The MARRTC study surveys persons with rheumatoid arthritis or osteoarthritis about access to care, use of services, quality of care delivered, customer satisfaction, and health status.
When he embarked on the study, Hagglund noted there was little information comparing how well traditional and managed care health organizations treat arthritis patients. Before he started, Hagglund said he expected to find managed care patients encountered more difficulty gaining access to specialists.
Yet the initial results differed from his expectations.
"The preliminary data is surprising us," Hagglund said.
So far, of the 409 persons surveyed, the initial results show that adults with all types of insurance encounter about the same degree of difficulty in accessing specialists.
The main difference between managed care and fee-for-service, Hagglund said, seems to be that patients have less access to complementary medicine such as acupuncture and chiropractic in managed care plans.
Noting the study is in its initial phase, Hagglund cautions, "There's a lot more to do."
Indeed. As the study enters its second year, recruiting is again under way until August 2000.
When Hagglund started the study, he said, "In the end, we expect this study and others will help consumers, consumer advocates, insurance companies and legislators make sure that people with chronic illnesses or disabilities receive excellent health care - the health care they deserve."
With his experience on Capitol Hill, Hagglund hopes to be better able to make that happen.
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