Professor William C. Hsiao, PhD, FSA—GHELI’s Senior Faculty Scholar—has been named the 2020 recipient of the William B. Graham Prize for Health Services Research. The Baxter International Foundation and the Association of University Programs in Health Administration (AUPHA) will present the Prize in a virtual format later this summer. The Prize is the “highest distinction that researchers in the health services field can achieve,” particularly recognizing research that has a lasting impact on healthcare system and healthcare delivery.
Hsiao is the K.T. Li Research Professor of Economics at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, where he has spent over forty years conducting health financing studies, including on single payer systems. Of note, Hsiao led the team that developed the scale used to determine how much medical providers should be paid—the basis for the payment system of the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid (CMS) and many health maintenance organizations (HMOs). Hsiao is also known for the Control Knobs model, an analytical model for national health systems that is taught and used worldwide. Eight nations commissioned Professor Hsiao and his team to design major reforms of their national health systems.
Currently, Hsiao conducts research to improve health care financing and delivery in India and China. More recently, Professor Hsiao has been at the forefront of the “Medicare for All” debate in the U.S., leveraging his global expertise to advise states across the country. A few months ago, California Governor Gavin Newsom appointed him as a member of the Governor’s Commission on Healthy Californians for All, a commission tasked with recommending viable reforms for the state of California.
Congratulations, Professor Hsiao!