Medicare Advantage is Covering More and More Americans—Some Because They Don’t Get to Choose
Employers, including state government agencies, are helping drive a dramatic surge in Medicare Advantage sign-ups.
Hoda S. Abdel Magid, MHS, PhD
Hoda S. Abdel Magid, MHS, PhD, is an assistant professor in the Department of Population and Public Health Sciences and in the Spatial Sciences Institute at the University of Southern California. Previously, she served as an instructor and postdoctoral fellow in the Department of Epidemiology and Population Health at Stanford University, where she received an NHLBI…
Third Annual Science of Alzheimer’s Disease and Alzheimer’s Disease Related Dementias (AD/ADRD) for Social Scientists Program Participant Information
Emma Aguila, PhD Emma Aguila, PhD, is an Associate Professor at the University of Southern California, Sol Price School of Public Policy. Her research focuses on assessing the effects of safety net policies and social security programs on cognitive decline and the well-being of older adults, as well as exploring the interrelation between social and behavioral…
The Science of ADRD for Social Scientists Participant Information
Paris Adkins-Jackson, PhD, MPH Paris “AJ” Adkins-Jackson, PhD MPH, is a multidisciplinary community-partnered health equity researcher and Assistant Professor in the Departments of Epidemiology and Sociomedical Sciences in the Mailman School of Public Health at Columbia University. AJ’s research investigates the role of structural racism on healthy aging for historically marginalized populations like Black and…
Medical Device Regulation and Reimbursement: What the Pandemic Revealed
Richard N. Merkin, MD Distinguished Speaker Series Millions of Americans rely on medical devices every day, including pacemakers for heart conditions, breathing machines for sleep apnea and continuous glucose monitors for diabetes management. Throughout the Covid-19 pandemic, diagnostics played a key role, and shortages of tests dramatically hindered America’s response. While the pandemic showed the…
Leveraging Behavioral Sciences for Dementia Care
Making medical decisions when there is uncertainty is challenging for patients, caregivers, and the care team. This is especially true for patients with Alzheimer’s and dementia. Insights from the behavioral sciences may help doctors detect dementia earlier and develop more insightful care plans. Join us on September 17 for a discussion about how the tools…
Can Health Technology Assessment Control Spending and Reward Innovation?
The pressure to curb U.S. healthcare spending keeps growing, but fear about what that might entail – including rationing of treatments or price controls that could stifle innovation – stops action. Unlike other advanced nations, the United States does not have a coordinated process to evaluate the effectiveness and value of new devices, medicines, or…
Improving and Accelerating Vaccine Distribution
Richard N. Merkin, MD Distinguished Speaker Series About 1.5 million Americans are getting a COVID-19 shot each day. At that rate, it might take until 2022 to get all Americans fully vaccinated. In addition, widely varying distribution strategies are creating significant disparities in who gets inoculated. Join the USC Schaeffer Center for Health Policy &…
Making Progress in Cancer Diagnostics: Clinical Practice and Policy
Cancer deaths are down nearly 30% over the last three decades. Some of the progress is due to public health advances, like reductions in smoking. But it also reflects therapeutic advances that take advantage of an evolving molecular understanding of the disease. Yet cancer remains the nation’s second most deadly disease, accounting for perhaps 600,000…
The Intersection of Two Pandemics: COVID-19 and Addiction
Individuals who suffer from addiction may be especially vulnerable to serious complications if they contract COVID-19. Furthermore, the pandemic has caused unprecedented levels of stress and other life disruptions, which may exacerbate substance use disorders and interfere with individuals’ recovery. Policymakers are addressing barriers to care that individuals with substance use disorder are facing through…
Conversations on COVID-19: Prioritizing Infectious Disease Research in Treatment and Vaccine Development
COVID-19 has propelled infectious disease research in treatment and vaccine development to the top of the public health agenda. Americans are seeing firsthand the devastating effects of a highly infectious virus on all aspects of life. What policies are needed to prioritize infectious disease mitigation and treatments to protect against future outbreaks of this virus…
From Behaviour to Data to Models and Back Again
Where Next for Understanding and Predicting Human Decision Making? After early work in psychology in the 1920s and major econometric developments in the 1960s and 1970s, the mathematical modelling of human decision-making has evolved substantially in recent decades. Novel model structures have been put forward, alternative data sources have been explored, and the methods have…
Data
The Schaeffer Institute is charged with producing relevant, rigorous research of consequence. The Institute identifies opportunities to increase value in healthcare delivery, improve performance of healthcare markets, improve health outcomes and reduce disparities, and foster better pharmaceutical policy and regulation through data-drive, interdisciplinary research. Below are key data points from recent research in each of…
Rural Americans Don’t Live as Long as Those in Cities
Rural Americans—particularly men—are expected to live significantly shorter, less healthy lives than their urban counterparts. “Diseases of despair” are fueling this widening gap.
Improving Medicare Advantage by Accounting for Large Differences in Upcoding Across Plans
A two-pronged reform strategy can limit the competitive edge for Medicare Advantage plans that aggressively upcode while lowering overpayments.
USC-Yale Roybal Center for Behavioral Interventions in Aging
Mission To advance value-based care through randomized trials and to understand mechanisms of behavior change to promote healthy aging. Specific Aims The application for the 2026-2027 funding period is now closed. Co-Investigators for the Roybal Center Current Roybal Center Training The Roybal Center funds one post-doctoral fellow to work on research that advances the behavioral…
Training and Careers
The Schaeffer Institute is committed to training the next generation of policy leaders. A variety of fellowships and training opportunities are available for people at various stages in their careers, and faculty oversee degree programs at partner schools. Careers at Schaeffer Below are current opportunities for full and part-time staff and faculty employment, pre- and…
CeASES-ADRD Pilot Project Awardees
2024-2025 Pilot Awardees Eric T. Klopack, PhD, University of Southern California Eric T. Klopack, is a postdoctoral researcher in the Leonard Davis School of Gerontology at USC. He received his doctorate in Sociology from the University of Georgia. His research focuses on the processes by which social circumstances and relationships interact with biological and developmental…
Key USC Researchers’ Dementia Cost Model Aims to Help Patients, Families
Knowing the actual costs of dementia could help families plan their budgets and support needs, inform treatment and caregiving options, and shape health care policy.
Fixing Medicare Advantage With Competitive Bidding
Schaeffer experts recommend using competitive bidding for standardized benefits to set plan payments and enhance beneficiary choice in Medicare Advantage.