I have several ongoing research projects:
- Examining the effects of hospital payment reform in Maryland: Along with colleagues from Harvard Medical School (Ateev Mehrotra, Mike Chernew, and Michael McWilliams), I have evaluated Maryland's introduction of episode-based payments for hospital services and hospital-wide global budgets. Forthcoming papers on this topic include:
- Year-two evaluation of Maryland's statewide transition to hospital global budgets
- Examining trends in hospital readmissions and returns to the hospital (including ED visits and observation-unit care)
- Effects of Medicare's Value-Based Payment Modifier on Care Quality and Disparities: This joint work with Michael McWilliams examines the effects of Medicare's Value Modifier on care quality and spending, using a quasi-experimental approach to identify treatment effects. A planned follow-on study will examine whether the distribution of provider bonuses and penalties under the program unintentionally penalized providers serving minority patients and individuals with complex health needs.
- Insurance Churning and Provider Networks: This work, with Bruce Landon and Michael Barnett, examines how low-income adults' use of care varies during an episode of "churning." We focus on transitions between Medicaid and low-cost insurance plans offered on the ACA's health benefit exchanges.
- Housing Vouchers and Health Care Use: Ongoing work with researchers from Johns Hopkins University examines how neighborhood poverty affects health care use and spending in low-income families. We harness data from a randomized controlled trial (the Moving to Opportunity study) to examine how the use of housing vouchers to move to low-poverty neighborhoods affected hospital use and health care costs.