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Associate Professor of Economics and Public Policy, Cornell University
Faculty Research Fellow, National Bureau of Economic Research
My research focuses on the economics of markets for health care and health insurance. I have held Federal service roles at Council of Economic Advisers (Staff Economist, 2011-12) and Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (Fellow, 2024-25). Previously, I was a Robert Wood Johnson Scholar in Health Policy Research at the University of Michigan and a visiting researcher at Princeton University's Center for Health and Wellbeing. I hold a BA from Yale University and a PhD in Economics from Johns Hopkins University.
Working Papers
Double Duty: A Subsidy Design for Quality Promotion and Price Discipline, with Ying Fan and Yiyi Zhou.
This paper studies how the design of quality-linked subsidies shapes firm behavior in both quality choices and pricing decisions. We examine a major reform in Medicare Advantage that links subsidies to quality through two distinct policy parameters. We develop and estimate a structural model of demand and firm behavior to evaluate the reform, decompose its effects, and compare alternative quality-linked subsidy designs. A central finding is that a subsidy design that links product quality to both the subsidy level and the pass-through from firm prices to subsidized consumer prices can simultaneously raise quality and lower prices.
Publications
Kim, Paul H. S. and Colleen Carey. 2026. “IRA Reforms to Medicare Part D Reinsurance Are Associated with Plan Exits and Higher Premiums.” Health Affairs. 45(7). DOI: 0.1377/hlthaff.2025.01518.
Carey, Colleen and Matthew L. Maciejewski. 2025. "Viewpoint: Real-World Evidence for Medicare Drug Price Negotiations." Journal of the American Medical Association. 2025(12).
Carey, Colleen, Nolan Miller, and David Molitor. Forthcoming. "Why Does Disability Increase During Recessions? Evidence from Medicare". Review of Economics and Statistics.
Coverage: Bulletin on Retirement and Disability
Cabral, Marika, Colleen Carey, and Jinyeong Son. Forthcoming. "Partial Outsourcing of Public Programs: Evidence on Determinants of Choice in Medicare". Review of Economics and Statistics.
Cabral, Marika, Colleen Carey, and Sarah Miller. 2025. "The Impact of Provider Reimbursement on Health Care Utilization of Low-Income Individuals: Evidence from Medicare and Medicaid". American Economic Journal: Economic Policy. 17(1).
Coverage: NBER Digest
Finalist for National Institute for Health Care Management Foundation’s 31st Annual Health Care Research Award
Carey, Colleen, Jing Li, and Michael Daly. 2025. "Nothing for Something: Marketing Cancer Drugs to Physicians Increases Prescribing Without Improving Mortality". Journal of Public Economics. 242.
Nikpay, Sayeh, John P. Bruno, and Colleen Carey. 2024. "Recent Court Ruling Could Increase the Size and Administrative Complexity of the 340B Program". Health Affairs Scholar. 12(2).
Hyland, Megan and Colleen Carey. 2023. "Biosimilars Engage in Low Levels of Direct-to-Physician Marketing Relative to Reference Biologics." Health Affairs Scholar. 1(6).
Gaddis, S. Michael, Colleen M. Carey, and Nicholas V. DiRago. 2023. "Changes over Time in COVID-19 Vaccination Inequalities in Eight Large U.S. Cities." Socius. 9.
Gaddis, S. Michael, Nicholas V. DiRago, Meiying Li, Thalia Tom, Will Schupmann, Yvonne Carrillo, and Colleen Carey. 2022. “COVID-19 Vaccine Rollouts and the Reproduction of Urban Spatial Inequality: Disparities Within Large U.S. Cities in March and April 2021 by Racial/Ethnic and Socioeconomic Composition.” Journal of Urban Health.
Carey, Colleen. 2021. "Sharing the Burden of Subsidization: Evidence on Pass-Through from a Subsidy Revision in Medicare Part D." Journal of Public Economics. 198. (ungated)
Carey, Colleen, Ethan M. J. Lieber, and Sarah M. Miller. 2021. "Drug Firms' Payments and Physicians' Prescribing Behavior in Medicare Part D," Journal of Public Economics. 197. (ungated )
Coverage: Cornell Chronicle
Finalist for National Institute for Health Care Management Foundation’s 27th Annual Health Care Research Award
Carey, Colleen, Giacomo Meille, and Thomas Buchmueller. 2021. "Provider Compliance With Kentucky’s Prescription Drug Monitoring Program’s Mandate To Query Patient Opioid History" Health Affairs. 40(3).
Carey, Colleen, Sarah M. Miller, and Laura Wherry. 2020. "The Impact of Insurance Expansions on the Already Insured: The Affordable Care Act and Medicare." American Economic Journal: Applied Economics. 12(4): 288-318. (ungated)
Buchmueller, Thomas, Colleen Carey, and Giacomo Meille. 2020. "How Well Do Doctors Know Their Patients? Evidence from a Mandatory Access Prescription Drug Monitoring Program." Health Economics. 29 (9): 957-974. (ungated)
Buchmueller, Thomas and Colleen Carey. 2018. "The Effect of Prescription Drug Monitoring Programs on Opioid Utilization in Medicare." American Economic Journal: Economic Policy. 10(1).
Carey, Colleen, Anupam B. Jena, and Michael L. Barnett. 2018. "Patterns of Potential Opioid Misuse and Subsequent Adverse Outcomes in Medicare, 2008-2012." Annals of Internal Medicine. doi: 10.7326/M17-3065.
Carey, Colleen. 2017. "Technological Change and Risk Adjustment: Benefit Design Incentives in Medicare Part D." American Economic Journal: Economic Policy. 9(1).
Finalist for National Institute for Health Care Management Foundation’s 24th Annual Health Care Research Award
Carey, Colleen and Stephen Shore. 2013. "From the Peaks to the Valleys: Cross-State Evidence on Income Volatility Over the Business Cycle." Review of Economics and Statistics. 95(2): 549-562.
Buchmueller, Thomas, Colleen Carey, and Helen Levy. 2013. "Will Employers Drop Health Insurance Coverage Because of the Affordable Care Act?" Health Affairs. 32(9): 1522-1530.
Sommers, Benjamin D., Thomas Buchmueller, Sandra L. Decker, Colleen Carey, and Richard Kronick. 2013. "The Affordable Care Act Has Led To Significant Gains In Health Insurance And Access To Care For Young Adults." Health Affairs. 32(1).
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