Funding for health services research is dwindling even as health costs soar. Even where funding is available, primarily through the federal Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, there has been an alarming decrease in accepted grant proposals, representing more individually developed research, in favor of government contracts. In the absence of a dramatic increase in funding health services research, both the efficiency and effectiveness with which biomedical and clinical research innovations are translated into medical practice will be threatened.

Wilson H. Taylor Scholar Joseph Antos

There is a "perfect storm" brewing in the American healthcare system. Healthcare spending has grown faster than our economy for many years and is projected to double in as little as 10 years. In spite of what we spend on healthcare, research tells us that we only receive appropriate care half the time. We are simply not getting what we are paying for. Health services research provides the data and the evidence needed to make better decisions, design healthcare benefits, and develop effective policies to optimize healthcare financing, facilitate access to healthcare services, and improve healthcare outcomes. Despite what we know and what we can learn from health services research, federal funding for this important field continues to erode.

 The full text of this article is available here as an Adobe Acrobat PDF.

Joseph Antos is the Wilson H. Taylor Scholar in Health Care and Retirement Policy at AEI. Emily J. Holubowich is the director of government relations at the Coalition for Health Services Research.