Email this pagePayment, Markets and Organization
The hallmark of our HSR Ph.D. Program since its inception has been training in healthcare payment, markets and organization. The program was established by Charles Phelps, Ph.D., M.B.A., University Professor, Provost of the University of Rochester from 1994 through 2007, and Chair of the Department of Community and Preventive Medicine from 1989 to 1994. Dr. Phelps was one of the lead researchers of the RAND Health Insurance Experiment, has published a leading textbook in the field (Health Economics, Addison-Wesley, 2003, Third Edition), and was elected to the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences in 1991. He continues to teach a required course in the HSR Ph.D. curriculum, Health Policy. He was the Chair of the Ph.D. committee for two HSR Ph.D. students who recently successfully defended their dissertations (August and October 2007), and chairs two other HSR dissertation committees.
The opportunity for pre- and postdoctoral training on innovations in organization and payment structures exists with Dr. Friedman’s work with the Medicare Primary and Consumer-Directed Care Demonstration, Dr. Temkin-Greener’s research funded by the National PACE Association to examine variations in risk-adjusted payment to PACE organizations, and with Dr. Yoo’s work with Dr. Peter Szilagyi (“Universal Childhood Influenza Vaccination: Providers’ Perspective”, Dr. Szilagyi, PI) to examine appropriate payment rates for providers that will promote child flu vaccination, accounting for various organizational settings. Two of Dr. Temkin-Greener’s studies serve as potential settings for both predoctoral and postdoctoral training in understanding the impact of changes in organizational structure and processes, new technologies, and management innovations. These are (1) a study funded by the Healthy Living Foundation Inc., to understand the impact of care processes and organizational structure on end-of-life practice patterns in nursing homes, and (2) research examining the impact of organizational structure and processes on risk-adjusted quality of care in nursing homes financed by NIA. Training about evaluation of innovations in prescription drug payments can occur in Dr. Katia Noyes’s National Multiple Sclerosis Society-funded study of cost-effectiveness of drugs for multiple sclerosis including various sources of payment.
Several of our Ph.D. dissertations have very recently examined or are currently assessing healthcare payment, markets and organization, including SCHIP, effects of the 1997 Balanced Budget Act on home health care case mix and utilization among dual eligibles, and the effect of Medicaid on hospitalizations of nursing home residents. One of the current trainees will be doing his dissertation on the consumer-directed voucher included as part of the Medicare Primary and Consumer-Directed Care Demonstration.
Apply Now!
