Howard B. Beckman

Howard B. Beckman, M.D., is medical director of the Rochester Individual Practice Association (RIPA)—a 3,200-practitioner community-wide physician organization—which has contracted both for capitated care and consulting services since 1998. Dr. Beckman is also a clinical professor of medicine and family medicine at the University of Rochester School of Medicine and Dentistry, where he conducts health services research and maintains a small internal-medicine and geriatrics practice. Dr. Beckman received his undergraduate degree from Brandeis University and his M.D. from the Wayne State University School of Medicine. His primary administrative and research interests are creating and evaluating effective partnerships. Dr. Beckman served as a co-investigator for the Excellus/RIPA Robert Wood Johnson Rewarding Results grant. This work led to publications under his co-authorship that address the effects of pay-for-performance on reducing overuse, underuse, and misuse of services. Recently published work in the Journal of Healthcare Management, for example, demonstrated a positive return-on-investment for the pay-for-performance initiative and improved quality measures in treating diabetes and coronary disease.