Lab Director: Michael E. Chernew, PhD
Michael Chernew, PhD is the Leonard D. Schaeffer Professor of Health Care Policy and the director of the Healthcare Markets and Regulation Lab in the Department of Health Care Policy at Harvard Medical School. Dr. Chernew’s research examines several areas related to controlling health care spending growth while maintaining or improving quality of care. His work on consumer incentives focuses on Value-Based Insurance Design (VBID), which aligns patient cost sharing with clinical value. His work on payment reform involves the evaluation of population-based and episode-based payment models. Other areas of research examine Medicare Advantage, prescribing patterns and medication adherence, the causes and consequences of rising health care spending, and geographic variation in spending, spending growth and quality.
Dr. Chernew is a member of the Congressional Budget Office’s Panel of Health Advisors and of the Institute of Medicine’s Committee on National Statistics (CNSTAT). He is also a research associate at the National Bureau of Economic Research. In 2011, he served on the Institute of Medicine’s Committee on Determination of Essential Health Benefits and, in 2010, was elected to the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences. Dr. Chernew is the former Vice Chair of the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission (MedPAC), which is an independent agency established to advise the U.S. Congress on issues affecting the Medicare program. In 2000, 2004, and 2010, he served on technical advisory panels for the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) that reviewed the assumptions used by Medicare actuaries to assess the financial status of Medicare trust funds. On these panels, Dr. Chernew focused on the methodology used to project trends in long-term health care spending growth. In April 2015, Massachusetts Governor Charlie Baker appointed Dr. Chernew to the Massachusetts Health Connector Board of Directors. Dr. Chernew is currently a co-editor of the American Journal of Managed Care and editor of the Journal of Health Economics. He is a former senior associate editor of Health Services Research. He has also served on the editorial boards of Health Affairs and Medical Care Research and Review.
In 1998, Chernew was awarded the John D. Thompson Prize for Young Investigators by the Association of University Programs in Public Health. In 1999, he received the Alice S. Hersh Young Investigator Award from the Association of Health Services Research. Both of these awards recognize overall contribution to the field of health services research. His 2008 article in Health Affairs, titled “Impact of Decreasing Copayments on Medication Adherence within Disease Management Program,” was awarded the Research Award from the National Institute for Health Care Management. Dr. Chernew earned his undergraduate degree from the University of Pennsylvania and his PhD in economics from Stanford University, where his training focused on areas of applied microeconomics and econometrics.
Governance Board: To leverage the disciplinary breadth of Harvard University, we have established a Governance Board comprised of leading faculty members from across the University. Members provide strategic guidance on the selection, progress, and impact of Lab research.
Ridley Watts Professor of Health Care Policy & Founding Head
Department of Health Care Policy, Harvard Medical School
John D. MacArthur Professor of Health Policy & Management, Harvard University Faculty, Harvard Kennedy School of Government, Harvard Medical School, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, and the Faculty of Arts and Sciences
Malcolm Wiener Professor of Social Policy, Harvard Kennedy School of Government
Faculty, Harvard Business School
Otto Eckstein Professor of Applied Economics, Faculty of Arts and Sciences
Harvard College Professor, Harvard University
Albert J. Weatherhead III Professor of Business Administration
Harvard Business School
Bruce V. Rauner Professor of Business Administration, Harvard Business School
Faculty, Harvard Kennedy School of Government
Policy Advisory Board: To support activities related to policy change we have assembled a Policy Advisory Board which includes individuals with recent governmental positions or policy connections to help identify pathways to integrate research findings into policy. The Policy Advisory Board provides strategic guidance on policy and regulatory issues, and identifying opportunities to integrate Lab research into policy.
Margaret T. Morris Professor of Health Economics in the Department of Health Care Policy at Harvard Medical School; Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation, 2014-2016. Chair, Policy Advisory Board.
Former Executive Vice President for Medical Affairs, CareFirst BlueCross BlueShield; Principal Deputy Administrator for the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, 2013-2014.
Adjunct Lecturer in Public Policy, Harvard Kennedy School; Chief of Staff to former senate Majority Leader Bob Dole, 1985-1996; former staff director of Senate Finance committee.
Dean and Professor of Public Service, NYU Wagner Graduate School of Public Service; Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation, 2010-2012.
Principal, O’Grady Health Policy, LLC; Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation, 2003-2005.
