John Hsu, MD, MBA, MSCE
Director of Clinical Economics and Policy Analysis Program, Health Policy Research Center
Associate Professor of Medicine, Harvard Medical School
Bio
John Hsu, MD, MBA, is the director of the Program for Clinical Economics and Policy Analysis within the Mongan Institute for Health Policy, which he joined in January 2010. He studies innovations in health care financing and delivery, and their effects on medical quality and efficiency. With a background in internal medicine, health services research and clinical epidemiology, and health care finance and management, Dr. Hsu brings clinical, population, and business perspectives to these studies. In his work, he primarily uses large automated and electronic health record data sets, often exploiting natural experiments from both clinical and behavioral economics perspectives. Dr. Hsu’s current work focuses on the interplay between benefit design and delivery system integration. He has collaborated closely with policy-makers and organizational decision-makers to help implement changes based on his research findings.
In 1999, after completing his medical and post-graduate training at the University of Pennsylvania, Dr. Hsu took a position at Kaiser Permanente in Oakland, CA, where most recently he served as director of the Center for Health Policy Studies in the Division of Research, Kaiser Permanente Medical Care Program. Since 2001, he has been continually funded by multiple R01 grants (including from the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality [AHRQ], the National Institute on Aging, and National Institute of General Medical Sciences), and grants supported by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, The Commonwealth Fund, and the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission (MedPAC), among other sources. His AHRQ grant R01 HS013902, “Prescription Drug Cost-sharing: Effects on Affordability and Patient Safety,” was the best scored project at AHRQ in 2003. One article from this drug cost-sharing study received Article of the- ear awards from both Academy Health and the International Society of Pharmacoeconomics and Outcomes Research in 2007. Dr. Hsu has given numerous invited research and other presentations at national and international meetings, and to public and private health care stakeholders.
Current Projects
National Institutes of Health
Impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on patients with and without Alzheimer’s Disease and Alzheimer’s Disease Related Dementias
Goals: To examine how the numbers of patients already in a hospital might impact care for the next patient admitted, that is investigate when hospitals might become overwhelmed to the point that COVID-19 patients have worse outcomes.
Role: Principal Investigator
National Institutes of Health
Comparative Safety of Seizure Prophylaxis within the Medicare Program
Goals: The goals of this study are to refine Medicare claims-based variable definitions for comparative safety studies, emulate a trial comparing outpatient anticonvulsant prophylaxis versus no treatment for post-acute ischemic stroke Medicare patients, and to emulate a trial comparing stopping outpatient anticonvulsant prophylaxis for post-acute ischemic stroke Medicare patients at six months versus continuing.
President and Fellows of Harvard College
Improving Medicare in an Era of Change, Project 4: Medicare and Vulnerable Populations: Beneficiaries with Dementia
Goals: To evaluate the fit of the Medicare program for the needs of beneficiaries who are clinically vulnerable, with emphasis on improving the identification of beneficiaries with cognitive impairment.
Role: Principal Investigator
President and Fellows of Harvard College
Medicare in an Era of Change: Medicare Post-Acute Use and Outcomes during the Pandemic for Patients with Dementia
Goals: This project will examine COVID-19 infections and all-cause mortality in Massachusetts post-acute or long-term care (LTC) facilities. We will assess the data validity then assess the impact of state-based infection control policies on LTC facility COVID-19 infections and all-cause mortality during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Role: Principal Investigator
President and Fellows of Harvard College
Deaths in Long-Term Care Facilities During the COVID-19 Era
Goals: This project will examine COVID-19 infections and all-cause mortality in Massachusetts post-acute or long-term care (LTC) facilities. We will assess the data validity then assess the impact of state-based infection control policies on LTC facility COVID-19 infections and all-cause mortality during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Role: Principal Investigator
Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Inc.
Understanding and Improving Surgical Decision Making
Goals: This project aims to 1) develop the evidence base to understand the case mix, predictors and risks of surgery provided to patients living with dementia, 2) characterize surgical decision-making in practice settings for patients living with dementia, and 3) develop recommendations around surgical decision-making processes for this population.
AltaMed Health Services Corporation
Effects of the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program on racial/ethnic and disability-based healthcare disparities
Goals: To examine how the unintentional elimination of SNAP benefits for thousands of eligible beneficiaries impacts outcomes.
Role: Principal Investigator
McLean Hospital Corporation
Laboratory for Early Psychosis Research (LEAP) – LEAP Methods Core
Goals: To acquire and integrate existing datasets for patients with their First Episode of Psychosis (FEP), then support the use of these data for Clinical Prediction and in Comparative Effectiveness Research as part of the P50 Center.
Role: Principal Investigator
McLean Hospital Corporation
Laboratory for Early Psychosis Research (LEAP) – LEAP Administrative Core
Goals: To support the creation of a research consortium spanning the first episode psychosis clinics in Massachusetts and the formation of a transdisciplinary team of leading researchers.
Role: Principal Investigator
McLean Hospital Corporation
Laboratory for Early Psychosis Research (LEAP) – Examining Pathways to Care
Goals: To examine potential differential selection into clinics offering coordinated specialty care (CSC) for patients with their first episode of psychosis (FEP), then examine the impact of CSC clinics on outpatient care and unfavorable clinical event rates.
Role: Principal Investigator
National Institute on Aging
Alzheimer’s Disease and Related Dementia Care within the Medicare Program
Goals: To examine how changes in the structure of the Medicare program affect the diagnosis and initial treatment of dementia.
Role: Principal Investigator
National Institute of Child Health and Human Development
Long Term Impact of Fertility Treatments (LIFT) Study
Goals: To examine the long-term impact on child outcomes of modern fertility treatments including assisted reproductive technology (ART) by a) developing a harmonized database using information from Denmark, the Netherlands, Sweden, and the United States; b) advancing the use of causal inference approaches in the examination of fertility treatments; and c) exploring long-term outcomes among children, adolescents, and young adults.
Role: Principal Investigator
National Institutes of Health
The Transition from Medicaid to Medicare and Impacts on Disparities in Coverage and Care
Goals: The goal of this study is to examine how state and federal policies that provide premium or cost-sharing subsidies to low-income Medicare beneficiaries impact chronic disease care, emergency department visits and hospitalizations, and health care spending.
Publications
Dr. Hsu on PubMed
Education
BA, Johns Hopkins University
MSCE, Center for Clinical Epidemiology and Biostatistics, University of Pennsylvania
MBA, University of Pennsylvania
MD, University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine