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Kenneth E. Thorpe, Robert W. Woodruff Professor and Chair, Department of Health Policy and Management, Rollins School of Public Health Emory University

Biography provided by participant

KENNETH E. THORPE, Ph.D., Robert W. Woodruff Professor and Chair of the Department of Health Policy & Management, in the Rollins School of Public Health of Emory University, Atlanta, Georgia. He also co-directs the Emory Center on Health Outcomes and Quality. He was the Vanselow Professor of Health Policy and Director, Institute for Health Services Research at Tulane University.

He was previously Professor of Health Policy and Administration at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill; an Associate Professor and Director of the Program on Health Care Financing and Insurance at the Harvard University School of Public Health and Assistant Professor of Public Policy and Public Health at Columbia University. Dr. Thorpe has also held Visiting Faculty positions at Pepperdine University and Duke University. Professor Thorpe was Deputy Assistant Secretary for Health Policy in the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services from 1993 to 1995. In this capacity, he coordinated all financial estimates and program impacts of President Clinton's health care reform proposals for the White House. He also directed the administration's estimation efforts in dealing with Congressional health care reform proposals during the 103rd and 104th sessions of Congress.

As an academic, he has testified before several committees in the U.S. Senate and House on health care reform and insurance issues. In 1991, Professor Thorpe was awarded the Young Investigator Award presented to the most promising health services researcher in the country under age 40 by the Association for Health Services Research. He also received the Hettleman Award for academic and scholarly research at the University of North Carolina and was provided an "Up and Comers" award by Modern Healthcare.

Recent Responses

November 11, 2010 10:48 AM

RE: Unfunded Programs and Implementation

Prevention and Wellness Programs Are Key The prevention and wellness initiatives in PPACA are critical to the law’s success, in terms of reducing health care spending and improving health outcomes. There is an indisputable body of research that shows when prevention is done right (i.e., evidence-based programs that target at-risk populations), the savings—in lives and dollars—is great. A recent Health Affairs article shows that increasing the use of 20 proven clinical preventive services (including tobacco cessation screening, alcohol abuse screening, and daily aspirin use) from current levels to 90 percent in 2006 could avert the loss of more than two…  Read more

October 13, 2010 06:28 PM

RE: Will Americans Change Behavior For Reform Law?

Evidence-Based Programs Improve Health Nearly half of Americans have at least one chronic illness, and patients with chronic diseases account for 75% of all health care spending. Yet according to estimates by the World Health Organization, three lifestyle interventions – not smoking, eating healthy and getting in shape – could prevent at least 80% of all heart disease, stroke, and type 2 diabetes, and more than 40% of cancer. Why the disconnect? Partly, it’s due to barriers to care, many of which have been removed through the passage of the Affordable Care Act. The legislation eliminated cost sharing for preventive…  Read more

October 4, 2010 12:02 PM

RE: Is Medicare A Debt-Reduction Target?

Cost Savings in Medicare The cost-saving potential in Medicare is great. While we’ve already begun to realize some of the cost-savings in Medicare via the implementation of several PPACA provisions—The Obama Administration released a report in August of this year showing a savings of $8 billion by the end of next year, and as much as $575 billion over the rest of the decade—we have only scratched the surface of cost savings in Medicare. There are three additional areas with significant cost-saving potential  that would help to improve health outcomes and reduce federal spending: 1. Reduce Preventable Hospital Readmissions. Preventable…  Read more

July 8, 2010 03:27 PM

RE: The Reform Law And The Deficit

Evidence of Cost-saving Potential OMB Director Peter Orszag is right, there are health care savings to be found in our current health care system. Several delivery system reforms included in PPACA have the potential to transform our health care system and save billions of dollars. Below are three crucial, cost-saving elements of health reform that must be fully appropriated: 1. Prevention: Seventy-five percent of health care spending is linked to treating chronic conditions, such as diabetes, hypertension and cancer. These chronic conditions are largely preventable and if caught early, the costly complications can be effectively managed and minimized. Preventive education…  Read more

May 12, 2010 12:33 PM

RE: Wisest Use Of Prevention And Wellness Money

Prevention is not just disease detection The first thing we need to clear up is what is meant by prevention. Too many, including John Goodman and much of the press, defiine prevention simply as disease detection (secondary prevention). These preventive efforts include cancer and other screenings and are intended to detect disease earlier to allow more effective clinical interventions that could improve the quality and/or longevity of life. They are not fundamentally intended, and never have been, to save money. Two other forms of prevention do save money and its here we need to invest. The first, primary prevention efforts…  Read more

 

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