Joseph P. Newhouse

Joseph P. Newhouse, PhD

Research Professor
John D. MacArthur Professor of Health Policy and Management (Emeritus)

Bio

Dr. Newhouse is the John D. MacArthur Research Professor of Health Policy and Management at Harvard University.  He is a member of the faculties of the Harvard Kennedy School, the Harvard Medical School, the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, and the Faculty of Arts and Sciences, as well as a Research Associate of the National Bureau of Economic Research. He received B.A. and Ph.D. degrees in Economics from Harvard University and an honorary doctoral degree from the Pardee RAND Graduate School. Following his Bachelor's degree, he was a Fulbright Scholar in Germany.  Dr. Newhouse spent the first twenty years of his career at RAND, where he designed and directed the RAND Health Insurance Experiment.  From 1981 to 1985 he was Head of the RAND Economics Department.

In 1981 he became the founding editor of the Journal of Health Economics, which he edited for 30 years.  He is a past member of the editorial boards of the New England Journal of Medicine, the Journal of Economic Perspectives, and the American Journal of Health Economics.  In 1977 he was elected to the National Academy of Medicine (formerly the Institute of Medicine) and served two terms on its governing Council.  In 1995 he was elected a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.  He was the inaugural President of the American Society of Health Economists, and was a past President of the International Health Economics Association and the Association for Health Services Research (AHSR), now AcademyHealth. He is a member of the Comptroller General’s Advisory Committee.  He has served as the vice-chair of the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission. This Commission resulted from the 1997 merger of two predecessor commissions, the Prospective Payment Assessment Commission and Physician Payment Review Commission.  Newhouse chaired the former and served as a commissioner on the latter.  From 2007-2012 he served on the Congressional Budget Office Board of Health Advisers, from 2006-2012 on the Committee on National Statistics, from 1999-2003 as a regent of the National Library of Medicine, and from 2004-2012 on the Science, Technology, and Economic Policy board of the National Research Council. He was a director of Aetna from 2001-2018, Abt Associates from 2001-2016, and the National Committee for Quality Assurance from 2003-2023.

He has received numerous honors.  In 2025 he was named a Distinguished Fellow of the American Economic Association, and in 2014 he won the Victor R. Fuchs Lifetime Achievement Award from the American Society of Health Economists.  He was the first recipient of the David N. Kershaw Award and Prize of the Association for Public Policy and Management in 1983, which honors persons under 40 who have made a distinguished contribution to the field of public policy analysis and management.  He received AHSR’s Distinguished Investigator Award in 1992 and the Swiss Foundation’s Hans Sigrist Prize for distinguished scientific achievement in 1995, along with the American Risk and Insurance Association’s Elizur Wright Award for a contribution to the risk management and insurance literature for Free for All?. In 2000 he and his co-authors received the first Zvi Griliches Prize in Empirical Economics for the best paper in a four-year period in the Quarterly Journal of Economics for Are Medical Prices Declining?. In 2001 and again in 2013 he and his co-authors won the Kenneth J. Arrow Award for the best paper in health economics.  In 2003 he won the Paul A. Samuelson Certificate of Excellence from TIAA-CREF for Pricing the Priceless.  In 2009 he won the Everett Mendelsohn Excellence in Mentoring Award from the Harvard Graduate School of Arts and Sciences.

CV

Curriculum Vitae

Administrative Contact

madison@hcp.med.harvard.edu 

Websites

HCP P01 Program Project

Honors & Awards

Honorary Degree of Doctor of Public Policy, Pardee RAND Graduate School, 2016

Kenneth J. Arrow Award for the best article in health economics published in 2012 (for “The Oregon Health Insurance Experiment: Evidence from the First Year”), 2013 (shared with seven co-authors)

AcademyHealth Health Services Research Impact Award, 2013 for an article published in 2012 that had a significant impact on health or health care (for “The Oregon Health Insurance Experiment: Evidence from the First Year”) (shared with seven co-authors)

Finalist for article of the year, National Institute of Health Care Management, 2010 (one of 5 papers selected), for “The Impact of the Medicare Part D Drug Benefit on Pharmacy and Medical Care Spending” and also in 2013 for “The Oregon Health Insurance Experiment”)

John Eisenberg Legacy Lecture, organized by the Philip R. Lee Institute of Health Policy Studies at UCSF, the Center for Health Policy/Center for Primary Care and Outcomes Research at Stanford University, and the Center for Health Research at the School of Public Health, UC Berkeley, May 17, 2010

Adam Yarmolinsky Award, from the Institute of Medicine to recognize distinguished service by a member who, over a significant period of time, has contributed in multiple ways to the IOM’s mission, 2009

Everett Mendelsohn Excellence in Mentoring Award, Harvard Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, 2009

Article-of-the-Year Award, 2007, AcademyHealth; International Society for Pharmacoeconomics and Outcomes Research (for “Medicare Drug Benefit Caps: Unintended Consequences”)

Harriet Elliott Lecture, “Long-Term Financing of Medicare,” University of North Carolina - Greensboro, April 18, 2005

ISI Highly Cited Researcher. From ISIHighlyCited.com.  Being acknowledged by Thomson Reuters as a Highly Cited Researcher means that an individual is among the 250 most-cited researchers in 21 broad subject categories in life sciences, medicine, physical sciences, engineering and social sciences. These individuals are the most highly cited within each category, and comprise less than one-half of one percent of all publishing researchers

Inaugural President, American Society of Health Economists, 2004-2006

Paul A. Samuleson Certificate of Excellence from TIAA-CREF, 2003 (for Pricing the Priceless) (http://www.tiaa-crefinstitute.org/Awards/2003cert.htm)

Ranked 133rd among 54,000 living economists, 2003; see (http://student.ulb.ac.be/~tcoupe/update/top1000c.pdf)

Invited plenary lecture, “Reimbursing for Health Care Services,” Journées d’Économie Publique in honor of Louis Andre Gerard Varet, Marseilles, 2003

Fellow, American Association for the Advancement of Science, 2002

Albert P. Williams Memorial Lecture, RAND, October, 2001 (first lecturer)

Kenneth J. Arrow Award for the best article in health economics published in 2000 (for “How Does Managed Care Do It?”), 2001 (shared with two co-authors).

Distinguished Speaker, 39th Economics Winter Institute, St. Cloud State University, February, 2001

Chung Hua Lecturer, Academia Sinica, Republic of China, December 2000

Commencement Speaker, University of Lausanne Health Policy Program, May 2000

Zvi Griliches Award, for the best empirical article in the Quarterly Journal of Economics in the past four years (for “Are Medical Prices Declining?”), 2000 (shared with three co-authors)

Society of General Internal Medicine, runner-up award for article of the year, 1999 (for “Costs of Medical Injuries in Utah and Colorado in 1992,” shared with six co-authors)

Massachusetts Health Data Consortium’s Investing in Information Award, for the Massachusetts Health Quality Partnership’s Statewide Patient Survey Project, 1999.  Also the Quigley Innovation award for the same project, 1999

Distinguished speaker, 25th anniversary meeting of the Spanish Health Economics Association (Asociacion de Economia de la Salud), Vitoria, Spain, May, 1998

Walras-Pareto Lecturer, University of Lausanne, November, 1997

Distinguished speaker, 10th anniversary meeting of the Portugese Health Economics Association, Evora, Portugal, October, 1997

Keynote speaker, 25th anniversary meeting of the Health Economics Study Group; York, England, 1997

Elected Member-at-large, Section Committee on the Social, Economic, and Political Sciences, American Association for the Advancement of Science, 1997-2001

Cornelson Distinguished Lecturer in Economics, Davidson College, March 1996

George Zuidema Lecturer, University of Michigan, March 1996

President, International Health Economics Association, 1996-1998

Alex G. McKenna Lecturer, Center for Economic and Policy Education, St. Vincent’s College, November 1995

American Economics Association, Representative to the American Association for the Advancement of Science, 1995-2000

Association for Health Services Research, Article-of-the-Year, Honorable Mention, 1995 (for “Does More Intensive Treatment of Acute Myocardial Infarction Reduce Mortality?” shared with two co-authors)

Elizur Wright Award from the American Insurance and Risk Association for Free for All? Lessons from the RAND Health Insurance Experiment, 1995

Hans Sigrist Foundation Prize, for distinguished scientific achievement, Bern, Switzerland, 1995

Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, elected 1995

Academic Geriatric Research Center Distinguished Professor for 1994-1995, University of California, Los Angeles, January 1995

Distinguished Fellow of the Association of Health Services Research (initial group of fellows, 1995)

Carl Taube Memorial Lecturer, National Institute of Mental Health, 1994

President, Association of Health Services Research, 1993-1994 (Board of Directors, 1991-1999)

Distinguished Investigator Award, Association for Health Services Research, 1992

Elected to the Governing Council of the Institute of Medicine, 1991-1994 and 1994-1997 (Executive Committee, 1993-1997; National Academy of Sciences Finance Committee, 1993- 1997)

Keynote speaker, First National Health Summit, Sydney, Australia, 1991

Keynote speaker, Second World Congress on Health Economics, Zurich, 1990

Association for Health Services Research Article-of-the-Year Award, 1989 (for “The Taxes of Sin: Do Smokers and Drinkers Pay their Way?” shared with four co-authors)

The Health Care Financing Administrator’s Citation, 1988, the Agency’s highest award to an individual who has made a significant contribution to its operations

The Baxter Health Services Research Prize, 1988, for an unusually significant contribution to the improved medical care of the public through innovative health services research

Sierra Foundation Distinguished Lecturer, University of Southern California, 1986 (first lecturer)

Who’s Who in Economics, 1st edition (the 640 most cited living economists from 1970‑1980); 2nd edition (the 1,280 most cited living economists from 1972‑1982); 3rd edition (the 1,000 most cited living economists from 1982-1992); 4th edition (the 1,000 most cited living economists from 1990-2000).

Who’s Who in America

The David N. Kershaw Award and Prize of the Association of Public Policy and Management, 1983, for a distinguished contribution to the field of public policy and management made while under 40 (first recipient)

Keynote speaker, First World Congress on Health Economics, Leiden, 1980

Institute of Medicine, National Academy of Sciences, elected 1977

National Science Foundation Graduate Fellowship, 1964-1966

Woodrow Wilson Honorary Scholar, 1964-1968

Fulbright Scholar, 1963-1964

Phi Beta Kappa

Alfred P. Sloan National Scholar (Harvard College)

Distributing $800 Billion: An Early Assessment of the Medicare Part D Risk-Adjustment Approach
Authors: John Hsu, Jie Huang, Vicki Fung, et al.
Health Affairs
View full abstract on Pubmed
Is Medicare Healthy?

Newsweek
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Medicare Part D and the Nursing Home Setting
Authors: D.G. Stevenson, H.A. Huskamp, and J.P. Newhouse
The Gerontologist
View full abstract on Pubmed
The Impact of Generic-Only Drug Benefits on Patients’ Use of Inhaled Corticosteroids in a Medicare Population with Asthma
Authors: Vicki Fung, Ira B. Tager, Richard Brand, et al.
BMC Health Services Research
View full abstract on Pubmed
Variation in patients' hospice costs.
Authors: Huskamp HA, Newhouse JP, Norcini JC, Keating NL.
Inquiry
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What Does the RAND Health Insurance Experiment Tell Us About the Impact of High-Deductible Health Plans on Health Outcomes?

American Journal of Managed Care
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Per diem payment and variation in patient-level hospice costs.
Authors: Huskamp HA, Newhouse JP, Norcini JC, et al.
Inquiry
View full abstract on Pubmed
A cost-effectiveness framework for profiling the value of hospital care.
Authors: Timbie JW, Newhouse JP, Rosenthal MB, et al.
Medical Decision Making
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Medicare Beneficiaries’ Knowledge of Part D Program Prescription Drug Benefits and Responses to Drug Costs
Authors: John Hsu, Vicki Fung, Mary Price, et al.
Journal of the American Medical Association
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Office Visit Copayments: Patient Knowledge, Response, and Communication with Providers
Authors: Nancy Benedetti, Vicki Fung, Mary Reed, et al.
Medical Care
View full abstract on Pubmed