Publications

2021
Government Testimony

How Health Care Consolidation Is Contributing to Higher Prices and Spending, and Reforms That Could Bolster Antitrust Enforcement and Preserve and Promote Competition in Health Care Markets

By: Leemore S. Dafny

Reforms to antitrust law and enforcement can help to address rising healthcare prices and spending. View Details

Keywords: Antitrust Law; Health Care and Treatment; Consolidation; Price; Spending; Cost Management; Governing Rules, Regulations, and Reforms; Competition; United States

15 Nov 2004
Research & Ideas

Solving the Health Care Conundrum

possible, why previous efforts to reform the system have not worked, and what to do about it. 2. The root cause of these problems is that the competition taking place has been the wrong kind. The major actors in View Details

Keywords: by Michael E. Porter; Health

March 23, 2010
Article

Passage of U.S. Healthcare Reform Legislation

By: Bill George

Keywords: Governing Rules, Regulations, and Reforms; Government Legislation; Health

Teaching Interest

Overview

By: Leemore S. Dafny

U.S. Healthcare Strategy

The U.S. healthcare sector accounts for 17 percent of GDP, and encompasses a diverse set of industries with public, nonprofit, and for-profit buyers and sellers. There are significant concerns about high and rising spending, and... View Details

Keywords: Healthcare; Health; Healthcare Reform; Life Sciences; Health Industry; United States

2016
Case

Advanced Leadership Pathways: Harvey Freishtat and Conversations about End-of-Life Care

By: Rosabeth Moss Kanter, Ai-Ling Jamila Malone and Oludamilola Aladesanmi

Former law firm chairman/CEO Harvey Freishtat was actively involved in the formation of The Conversation Project, a national public engagement campaign to promote earlier end-of-life care discussions among loved ones and then with providers to ensure that end-of-life... View Details

Keywords: Health Care Education; Health Care Reform; Health Care Policy; Health; Health Care and Treatment; Leadership; Health Industry

2020
Working Paper

Cutting the Gordian Knot of Employee Health Care Benefits and Costs: A Corporate Model Built on Employee Choice

By: Regina E. Herzlinger and Barak D. Richman

The U.S. employer-based health insurance tax exclusion created a system of employer-sponsored insurance (ESI) with limited insurance choices and transparency that may lock employed households into health plans that are costlier or different from those they prefer to... View Details

Keywords: After-tax Income; Consumer-driven Health Care; Health Care Costs; Health Insurance; Income Inequality; Tax Policy; Health Care and Treatment; Cost; Insurance; Employees; Income; Taxation; Policy; United States

SSRN

24 Oct 2017
Research & Ideas

Tax Reform is on the Front Burner Again. Here’s Why You Should Care

happening. Immigration, health care, tax reform, shifting foreign policy agendas are all percolating about. As a result, tax reform has not been the focus of anything or anyone. So, it's harder to get a... View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne

2014
Other Unpublished Work

Nudging Physicians to Pursue Careers in Underserved Areas: A Case for Behavioral Economics

By: Joseph Lopez, Mona Singh, Nava Ashraf and Joel Weissman

Currently, more than 60 million Americans live in "Health Professional Shortage Areas." Unless policymakers can encourage more physicians to practice in medically under-resourced areas, an increased number of uninsured individuals newly able to obtain health insurance... View Details

Keywords: Access To Care; Health Economics; Health Reform; Minority Health; Disparities; Health Care and Treatment; Health Industry

22 Aug 2022
Research & Ideas

Can Amazon Remake Health Care?

Haven, along with JPMorgan Chase and Berkshire Hathaway, which was a naive effort to reform health care. Haven folded in 2021. And in the late 1990s, they tried to buy drugstore.com. So, they’ve been... View Details

Keywords: by Christina Pazzanese, Harvard Gazette; Health

04 Jun 2007
Research & Ideas

Is Health Care Making You Better—or Dead?

Regina Herzlinger is not afraid to call them as she sees them. And what she sees looking at the American health care industry is a bunch of killers. Not only are hospitals, insurers, employers, Congress, and academics killing View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne; Health

March – April 2010
Article

Healthcare Reform and Its Implications for the U.S. Economy

By: Regina E. Herzlinger

Keywords: Health Care and Treatment; Governing Rules, Regulations, and Reforms; Economy; United States

Find at Harvard

May 2024 (Revised January 2025)
Technical Note

Health Care Payment in the United States

By: Robert S. Huckman, Jeff Charca and Craig Garthwaite

This document provides an overview of how various actors (e.g., physicians, hospitals, and other health care providers) are paid in the United States health care system. It is particularly focused on features of the payment system that contribute to strategic decisions... View Details

Keywords: Compensation and Benefits; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Health Industry

11 Feb 2008 - 12 Feb 2008
Keynote Speech

Forces Affecting the Competitive Landscape in Health Care

Conference composed of 300 mid-level, senior health care executives focused on strategies to improve care, increase care margins, and grow clinical volumes in orthopedic service delivery. Presentation focused on major forces affecting care delivery: 1) quality and cost... View Details

Keywords: Competition; Health Care and Treatment; Health Industry

2015
Working Paper

How Should We Pay for Health Care?

By: Michael E. Porter and Robert S. Kaplan

Improving the way we pay for health care must be a central component in health care reform. Payment reform must link provider reimbursement and accountability to improving patient value: better health outcomes delivered at lower cost. Today’s deeply flawed... View Details

Keywords: Competition; Value; Health Industry

June 2015 (Revised November 2016)
Supplement

HealthCare.gov: The Crash and the Fix (B)

By: Leonard A. Schlesinger and Paras D. Bhayani

A review of the process utilized by the Obama administration to create the Health Care.gov exchange and the problems that resulted from the implementation effort. This case provides the follow on strategy and processes utilized to get the site up and running after the... View Details

Keywords: Organizational Change; Implementing Strategy; Implementation; Government Innovation; Health Care Industry; Health Care Reform; Service Delivery; Internet and the Web; Health; Government and Politics; Health Industry; Health Industry; Health Industry; United States

June 2015 (Revised November 2016)
Case

HealthCare.gov: The Crash and the Fix (A)

By: Leonard A. Schlesinger and Paras D. Bhayani

A review of the process utilized by the Obama administration to create the Health Care.gov exchange and the problems that resulted from the implementation effort. There is a B case that provides the follow on strategy and processes utilized to get the site up and... View Details

Keywords: Organizational Change; Implementing Strategy; Implementation; Government Innovation; Health Care Industry; Health Care Reform; Health Care and Treatment; Government Administration; Governing Rules, Regulations, and Reforms; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Health Industry; Health Industry; United States

January 2019 (Revised June 2019)
Technical Note

U.S. Commercial Health Insurance Industry

By: Susanna Gallani, Mary Witkowski and Harry B. Wolberg

This note describes the role of commercial payers in the U.S. healthcare industry. We begin with a review of the historical evolution of commercial payers and their role in the market, from the beginning to the Affordable Care Act and beyond. Every wave of reforms in... View Details

Keywords: Health Care and Treatment; Insurance; Governing Rules, Regulations, and Reforms; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Health Industry; Health Industry; United States