Policy Research Grants is a program from the National Institute for Health Care Management (NIHCM) Foundation that funds innovative, solutions-oriented health policy research to build the evidence base for improving health care affordability, accessibility, and quality in the U.S. The 2026 cycle invites letters of inquiry for projects examining key drivers and implications of rising health care spending, with focus on costs, affordability, quality, and access.

Priority topics include health care consolidation, value-based care, behavioral health, and public health. Awards reach up to $50,000 per project, with a total of $500,000 available for this cycle. The letter of inquiry deadline is June 8, 2026.

Eligible applicants are researchers with solutions-oriented proposals.

NIHCM Foundation supports innovative, solutions-oriented, investigator-initiated policy research that builds the evidence base and has the potential to inform strategies that improve the affordability, accessibility, and quality of health care in the US. Funded projects should produce new insights, data analysis, and evidence that are relevant to health plans, policymakers, health care delivery systems, and/or related stakeholders.

This year, we are inviting letters of inquiry for projects that examine the key drivers and implications of rising health care spending, with a focus on costs, affordability, quality, and access. We are particularly seeking solutions-oriented health care research that evaluates or informs public and private sector strategies and policies, including at the state and federal levels.

All proposals should be geared towards improving the value of health care in the US. Funding requests should align with one or more of the following issue areas: Health Care Costs & Quality: Understanding the key drivers of rising health care spending and the implications for access to care, quality, and health outcomes.

The effectiveness of state and federal policies implemented to control costs, as well as interventions aimed at reducing low value care. Health Care Consolidation: How health care competition, consolidation, and ownership across the health care system are impacting costs, access, provider workforce dynamics, quality of care, and patient outcomes.

Artificial Intelligence: The impacts of artificial intelligence in health care, including opportunities for cost savings, reduced administrative burden, increased access to care, and improved health outcomes, as well as the potential challenges around spending, increased coding intensity, and quality control.

Prescription Drugs & Technology: The implications of technology and drug prices on spending, utilization, and health outcomes, and the effectiveness of public and private sector policies and innovations to improve patient outcomes and access, while managing the cost of care. Rural Health: Challenges and opportunities facing rural health systems and communities around health care costs, access, consolidation, and quality.

The impact of state and federal policies and innovations to improve health care in rural areas, including telehealth, workforce development, and care coordination and delivery.

Maternal Health: Understanding the drivers of — and disparities in — maternal health (including postpartum) and infant health outcomes and how public and private sector policies and initiatives impact maternal health care delivery, access to high-value care, health outcomes, and costs. We are now accepting letters of inquiry for the 2026-2027 funding cycle of NIHCM Foundation's investigator-initiated Policy Research Grant program !

NIHCM is making a total of $500,000 available this cycle, with most individual grants awarded in the $50,000 range . Interested researchers must submit a brief letter of inquiry (LOI) outlining their study idea by 5:00 PM EDT on June 8, 2026 . Applications are welcome at any time prior to that deadline.

LOIs must conform to the required structure and must be submitted using NIHCM’s online entry system (see below). Full (10-page) proposals will be invited from a small number of applicants in early August 2026. NIHCM will notify grant winners in December 2026, for project start dates as early as January 2027.

Please contact Cait Ellis at cellis@nihcm. org with any questions related to specific grant entries, and Mikayla Thompson at mthompson@nihcm. org with any technical questions.

View FAQ for Policy Research Grants Don't miss our Policy Research Awards. January 01, 2026 - December 31, 2026 The Effect of Ambient AI Scribes on Productivity, Coding Intensity, and Spending Hannah Neprash, University of Minnesota Maternal and Child Health Social Determinants of Health No grantees match these filters, please select a different filter.

January 01, 2026 - December 31, 2026 The Impact of Insurance Coverage in Adulthood on Later-Life Health Care Spending: Evidence from the Affordable Care Act’s Medicaid Expansion Yasin Civelek, Weill Medical College January 01, 2026 - December 31, 2026 Ambient AI Documentation and Billing Intensity: Evidence from Commercial Claims Tinglong Dai, Johns Hopkins University January 01, 2026 - December 31, 2026 GLP-1 Adoption and Its Downstream Effects on Health Spending and Utilization Among Privately Insured Adults with Diabetes and Obesity Sih-Ting Cai, Indiana University January 01, 2026 - January 31, 2026 Evaluating the Impact of State Cost Growth Benchmarks on Hospital Spending Roslyn C Murray, Brown University School of Public Health January 01, 2026 - December 31, 2026 Price Benchmarks and Limits for Biologics and Specialty Drugs James Robinson, University of California, Berkeley January 01, 2026 - December 31, 2026 The Effect of Ambient AI Scribes on Productivity, Coding Intensity, and Spending Hannah Neprash, University of Minnesota January 01, 2026 - December 31, 2027 COMPASS – Creating Optimal Markets for Perinatal Analysis of Service Systems amid concentration from hospital closures Elizabeth Salazar, The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia January 01, 2026 - June 30, 2027 The Impact of Private Equity Ownership on Medical Technologies Atul Gupta, University of Pennsylvania January 01, 2026 - July 01, 2027 The Impact of Hospital Mergers and Acquisitions on Consumer Finances Ambar La Forgia, University of California, Berkeley January 01, 2026 - December 31, 2026 Quantifying Growth in Provider Billing Margins on Cancer Drugs Aaron P Mitchell, Memorial Sloan Kettering Institute for Cancer Research January 01, 2025 - December 31, 2025 Quantifying the Population Health Impact of New Drugs Adopted by Medicare Irene Papanicolas, Brown University April 01, 2025 - March 31, 2026 Patient Outcomes and Cost Variations across Different Nurse Practitioner Scope of Practice Levels Cynthia Chih-Ying Li, University of Texas Medical Branch January 01, 2025 - January 31, 2025 Socio-economic and Healthcare Factors Associated with the Provision of Direct Primary Care Services in the United States Revathy Surya Narayana, UT Southwestern Medical Center January 01, 2025 - December 31, 2025 Value-based Precision Medicine: Assessing the Financial Implications of Medicare’s Coverage Policy for Advanced Genetic Testing So-Yeon Kang, Georgetown University School of Health and Lombardi Comprehensive Cancer Center May 01, 2025 - April 30, 2026 Impact of Integrated Primary Care and Mental Health Models of Care on Health Services Utilization and Costs for Medicaid Beneficiaries with Mental Health Conditions or Substance Use Disorders Ann Annis, Michigan State University January 01, 2025 - September 30, 2026 Cost of Product Discontinuations in the Pharmaceutical Industry Tuba Tuncel, Florida State University January 01, 2025 - December 31, 2025 Impact of Medicare Advantage Value-Based Contracts on Adoption of Remote Patient Monitoring for Hypertension Management and Patient Outcomes Donglan Stacy Zhang, NYU Grossman Long Island School of Medicine January 01, 2025 - December 31, 2025 The Rise of Compounded GLP-1 Weight Loss Medications: A Landscape Analysis of the Direct-To-Consumer Market Michael DiStefano, University of Colorado January 15, 2025 - January 14, 2026 Hospital Competition, Vertical Integration, and Participation in Value-Based Payment Programs Kate Bundorf, Duke University January 01, 2025 - January 31, 2027 Spillovers from Commercial Drug Coverage to Medicare Utilization Josh Feng, University of Utah January 01, 2025 - December 31, 2025 Using Transparency in Coverage Data to Understand Health Care Price Variation Christopher Whaley, Brown University January 01, 2024 - December 31, 2024 Evaluating the Effectiveness of the Hospital Price Transparency Rule in Price Reduction John X Jiang, Michigan State University January 01, 2024 - December 31, 2024 Impact of Capitation Payment Models on Kidney Health Outcomes Sri Lekha Tummalapalli, Weill Cornell January 01, 2024 - December 31, 2024 The Effect of AI-Enabled Clinical Software on Health Care Spending and Health Outcomes Anna Zink, University of Chicago & Hannah Neprash, University of Minnesota January 01, 2024 - December 31, 2024 A Double-Edged Sword: Evaluating the Role of Telehealth Expansion and Contraction in the US Opioid Crisis Niam Yaraghi, University of Miami/Brookings Institution January 01, 2024 - December 31, 2024 Spillover Effects of Private Equity Acquisitions of Physician Practices on Local Market Competitors: Implications for Access to Care Yashaswini Singh, Brown University June 01, 2024 - August 31, 2025 Private Equity’s Effects on Primary Care Practices Participating in Medicare Advantage Jane Zhu, Oregon Health & Science University January 01, 2024 - December 31, 2024 How Does Interchangeability Impact Biosimilar Adoption?

Pragya Kakani, Weill Cornell Medicine & Luca Maini, Harvard Medical School January 01, 2024 - December 30, 2024 Market, Organizational, and Policy Drivers of Hospital Price Markups for Specialty Drugs James Robinson, University of California, Berkeley January 01, 2024 - December 31, 2024 New Uses of Existing Drugs: The Effects of FDA Regulation and Off-Label Drug Use on Incentives for Pharmaceutical Innovation Jennifer Kao, University of California, Los Angeles January 01, 2023 - December 31, 2023 In the Shadows of Trauma: The Economic and Clinical Impact of Childhood Firearm Injuries on Survivors and Family Members Zirui Song, Harvard Medical School and Massachusetts General Hospital February 01, 2023 - June 30, 2024 Evaluating Automatic Enrollment into Marketplace Coverage During the Unwinding of the Medicaid Continuous Coverage Policy: a Two-State Study Adrianna McIntyre, Harvard University January 20, 2023 - January 19, 2024 Do Hospital Partnerships with Community-Based Organizations that Address Social Determinants of Health Reduce Hospital Readmission and Mortality?

Yunyu Xiao, Weill Cornell Medicine, Department of Population Health Sciences March 01, 2023 - August 31, 2024 A State-wide Study of Childbirth-Related Opioid Exposure and Conversion to Postpartum High-Risk Opioid Use Meredith Matone, University of Pennsylvania and Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia January 01, 2023 - March 01, 2024 Debunking the Myth that High Drug Prices Accelerate Innovation Avik Roy, Foundation for Research on Equal Opportunity (FREOPP) January 01, 2023 - February 29, 2024 Increasing Private Equity Investment in Cancer Care: What is the Effect on Prices and Quality of Care?

Ola Abdelhadi, University of California, Berkeley January 01, 2023 - June 30, 2023 Can Improving Pharmaceutical Patent Quality Promote Competition and Reduce Drug Prices? Bhaven N.

Sampat, Arizona State University (formerly Columbia University) January 01, 2023 - June 30, 2024 Increasing Access to Postpartum Mental Health Care via Telehealth: Evidence from Medicaid Coverage of Mental Health Services in Massachusetts Chanup Jeung, University at Albany, State University of New York (formerly at University of Massachusetts, Amherst) January 01, 2023 - December 31, 2023 Understanding Racial and Ethnic Disparities in Timeliness of Diabetes Care Dan Ly, University of California, Los Angeles & VA Greater Los Angeles January 01, 2023 - December 31, 2024 The Effect of Hospital Ransomware Attacks on Health Care Delivery and Patient Outcomes Hannah Neprash, University of Minnesota June 01, 2023 - May 31, 2024 Improving Competitive Drug Markets by Reviewing Patents S.

Sean Tu, West Virginia University College of Law January 01, 2023 - December 31, 2023 The Effects of Physicians’ Financial Transfers from Drug Firms on Prescribing of Physician-Administered Cancer Drugs Colleen Carey, Cornell University January 01, 2022 - December 31, 2022 Defining the Digital Divide: Implications for Improving Access to Care Wendy Brunner, Bassett Medical Center January 01, 2022 - June 30, 2023 Assessing Postpartum Care Among Medicaid Beneficiaries in an Era of Expanded Access and Telehealth Services Mark Clapp, Massachusetts General Hospital February 01, 2022 - June 30, 2023 Marginalized/Minoritized Communities, Health Equity and Medicaid Telehealth Policy Alison Cuellar, George Mason University January 01, 2022 - July 01, 2024 Redesigning Payment Policy for Physician-Administered Drugs Keith Marzilli Ericson, Boston University January 01, 2022 - December 31, 2022 Delivering Medicaid Mental Health Services and Supports in Schools Vinu Ilakkuvan, PoP Health, LLC January 01, 2022 - June 30, 2023 Can Medical Practices Afford to Increase Efficiency?

Tim McDonald, Pardee RAND Graduate School January 01, 2022 - December 31, 2022 Making Primary Care Count: Intended and Unintended Consequences of the Evaluation & Management Payment Change Hannah Neprash, University of Minnesota January 01, 2022 - December 31, 2023 Vertical Integration of Specialty Physician Practices and the Association with Private Equity Acquisition of Short-Term Acute Care Hospitals James Roberts, Duke University January 01, 2022 - June 30, 2023 Provider Price Strategies and Insurer Counter-Strategies for Infused Drugs in Hospital and Independent Sites of Care James Robinson, University of California, Berkeley January 01, 2022 - December 31, 2022 Meals on Wheels Services and Healthcare Utilization Among Frail Older Adults Over Time Sarah Walsh, Eastern Michigan University January 01, 2022 - December 31, 2022 Forum on Traumatic Brain Injury Katherine Bowman, National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine January 01, 2021 - June 30, 2022 Impact of Medicaid Provider Incentives for Postpartum LARC Provision on Postpartum Contraceptive Use Jessica Cohen, Harvard University January 01, 2021 - August 31, 2023 Medically Integrated Dispensing in Oncology Genevieve Kanter, University of Pennsylvania February 01, 2021 - May 30, 2022 How Did the Pandemic Change Care for Patients with Chronic Conditions?

Alison Cuellar, George Mason University May 01, 2021 - July 20, 2022 The Causal Effect of High-Quality Physician-Patient Relationships on Healthcare Costs and Outcomes: Differences by Race/Ethnicity and the Effect of Racial/Ethnic Concordance Tim Brown, University of California, Berkeley January 01, 2021 - June 30, 2022 Price and Quality for Ambulatory Surgery: Differences Between Hospital-Based and Freestanding Centers Jamie Robinson, University of California, Berkeley March 01, 2021 - February 28, 2022 Nudging Providers to Curtail Dangerous Opioid Prescribing and Improve the Safety of the Health Care Delivery System Adam Sacarny, Columbia University January 01, 2021 - January 31, 2023 Private Equity Acquisitions of Physician Medical Practices and Implications for Practice Patterns and Costs of Care Jane Zhu, Oregon Health and Science University January 01, 2021 - August 31, 2022 Provider Market Power and Adverse Selection in Health Insurance Markets: Evidence from the California Benefits Exchange Nicholas Tilipman, University of Illinois at Chicago January 01, 2021 - December 31, 2022 Can Conflict of Interest with the Drug Industry Harm Patients?

Aaron Mitchell, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center June 01, 2020 - July 31, 2021 Health and Economic Incidence of the COVID-19 Pandemic Maria Polyakova, Stanford University June 01, 2020 - December 31, 2022 The Impact of COVID-19 on Health Care Spending and Practice Patterns Amol Navathe, University of Pennsylvania January 01, 2014 - June 30, 2015 The Impact of Payment Reform on Physician Referrals, Patient Flows and Health Care Costs Bruce Landon, Harvard University January 01, 2014 - March 15, 2015 Assessing the Impact of Integrated Case Management on Health Services Use and Costs in Medicaid Gloria Bazzoli, Virginia Commonwealth University January 01, 2014 - March 31, 2015 Variations in Patient Experience with Tiered Physician Networks Anna Sinaiko, Harvard University January 01, 2014 - December 31, 2014 Identifying Winners and Losers Under Proposals to Simplify Drug Plan Choice in Medicare Part D Jonathan Ketcham, Arizona State University January 01, 2013 - January 15, 2014 Hospital Acquisition of Physician Practices and Health Care Delivery and Costs Laurence Baker, Stanford University January 01, 2013 - October 31, 2013 Evaluating Coverage, Utilization and Access to Care in Medicaid “Early Expander” States Under the Affordable Care Act Ben Sommers, Harvard University February 01, 2015 - January 31, 2016 Physician Practice Organization and Health Care Delivery and Costs Laurence Baker, Stanford University January 12, 2015 - January 11, 2016 Do Higher Priced Providers Deliver Higher Quality Care?

An Analysis of the Price/Quality Relationship Using HCCI Data Zack Cooper, Yale University January 01, 2015 - June 30, 2016 How Are Physician Referral Networks Affected by Physician Practice Ownership and Limited Coverage Network Insurance Products?

Keith Marzilli Ericson, Boston University January 01, 2015 - April 30, 2016 Physician Practice Styles and Overuse of Healthcare Services Allison Lipitz-Snyderman, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center February 01, 2016 - July 31, 2017 Evaluation of Affordable Care Act Policies to Encourage Accurate Prices for Medicare Services Miriam Laugesen, Columbia University January 01, 2016 - October 31, 2017 How Do Patients Rate Experiences with Physicians Who Provide More Low-Value Services?

Prachi Sanghavi, The University of Chicago January 01, 2016 - December 31, 2016 An Empirical Investigation of Potential Manipulation in the Nursing Home Rating System Niam Yaraghi, The Brookings Institution January 01, 2016 - December 31, 2016 Improving the Effectiveness and Efficiency of High-Risk Care Management through Machine Learning Ziad Obermeyer, Brigham and Women's Hospital January 01, 2016 - March 31, 2018 The Prescription Opioid Epidemic: Understanding Its Complications and the Effectiveness of State Policies Stephen Patrick, Vanderbilt University Medical Center May 01, 2016 - April 30, 2017 Physician-Driven Overuse of Services for Patients with Advanced Cancer Allison Lipitz-Snyderman, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center January 01, 2017 - December 31, 2018 Consumer Directed Health Plan Impact on Low-Value Service Utilization and Spending Neeraj Sood, University of Southern California January 01, 2017 - August 31, 2018 eQuality: Improving LGBT, GNC, and DSD Health Through a Comprehensive Medical School Training Program Susan Sawning, University of Louisville School of Medicine January 01, 2017 - December 31, 2018 Patterns and Determinants of Inappropriate Diagnostic Imaging Gary Young, Northeastern University January 01, 2017 - December 31, 2018 Evaluating and Improving Post-Hospitalization Mental Health Follow-Up Care Kimberley Geissler, University of Massachusetts Amherst September 01, 2016 - December 31, 2017 Selected Market Failures in Health Care: Analyzing the Scope, Causes, and Potential Solutions Zack Cooper, Yale University January 01, 2017 - December 31, 2017 Promoting Better Pain Management Outcomes: Precision Decision Support for Opioid Prescription Ritu Agarwal, University of Maryland March 01, 2018 - February 28, 2019 Measuring Systemic Overuse in the Privately Insured Jodi Segal, Johns Hopkins University January 01, 2018 - June 30, 2019 The Effects of Expanded Access to LARCs on Women’s Outcomes Jason Lindo, Texas A&M University January 01, 2018 - March 31, 2019 Addressing Modifiable Healthcare Spending Through Dynamic Modeling Approaches Julie Lauffenburger, Brigham & Women’s Hospital January 01, 2018 - December 31, 2019 The Effects of Physician-Hospital Integration on Health Care Spending and Use Anne Royalty, Indiana University January 01, 2018 - January 01, 2020 The Impact of Reference Pricing on Hospital-Insurer Bargaining Christopher Whaley, RAND Corporation January 01, 2018 - December 31, 2018 Policy Approaches to Insure High Risks Maria Polyakova, Stanford University January 01, 2019 - December 31, 2019 Valuing a Cure: Evaluating Different Approaches to Determine a Value-Based Price for a Potential Cure Principal Investigator: Steven D.

Pearson, Institute for Clinical and Economic Review January 01, 2019 - December 31, 2019 Very High and Low Residual Spenders in Private Health Insurance Markets Tom McGuire, Harvard University January 01, 2019 - September 30, 2020 Persuasion and Welfare in Physician-Industry Relations: Evidence from the Medical Device Industry Matthew Grennan (currently at UC Berkeley), Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania January 01, 2019 - March 31, 2021 Effects of Tiered Physician Networks on Health Care Use and Provider Behavior Anna Sinaiko, Harvard University January 01, 2019 - March 31, 2021 The Impact of Hospital Consolidation on Care Access, Quality, and Disparities for Low-Income Populations: Evidence from New York Medicaid Sunita Desai, New York University January 01, 2019 - December 31, 2024 Why Does the US Overinvest in Technology?

The Curious Case of MRI Scanners Zack Cooper, Yale University January 01, 2019 - March 31, 2022 Impact of ACA Medicaid Expansions on Prenatal Care Utilization and Birth Outcomes Bassam Dahman, Virginia Commonwealth University March 01, 2020 - November 30, 2020 Nothing Matters: The Zero-Price Effect in the Individual Insurance Market Coleman D.

Drake, University of Pittsburgh January 01, 2020 - June 30, 2022 Competitive Dynamics of Physician Referrals in the Era of ACOs Principal Investigator: Russell J.

Funk, University of Minnesota January 01, 2020 - January 31, 2021 The Impact of Consolidation on Prescription Drug Pricing and Access Principal Investigator: Josh Feng, University of Utah June 01, 2020 - August 31, 2022 Geographic Variation in Medicare and Commercial Spending Principal Investigator: Pierre Thomas Léger, University of Illinois at Chicago January 06, 2020 - July 31, 2021 Variation Across Health Systems in the Overuse of Healthcare Resources by Older Adults in the United States Jodi B.

Segal, Johns Hopkins University January 01, 2020 - April 30, 2021 Measuring the Value of Emergency Mental Health Care Sarah Axeen, University of Southern California January 01, 2020 - September 30, 2020 Policy Changes that Need to be Made for FQHCs to Utilize Telehealth to Address the Opioid Crisis Mei Kwong, Center for Connected Health Policy January 01, 2020 - June 30, 2022 Improving Postpartum Health through Increased Medicaid Coverage after Childbirth Maria Steenland, Brown University January 01, 2020 - July 31, 2022 Bargaining and International Reference Pricing in the Pharmaceutical Industry Ashvin Gandhi, University of California, Los Angeles