Harkness Project Title: Competition and Global Budgets in Health Care: Getting the Incentives Right
Mentor: Thomas G. McGuire, Ph.D. (Harvard Medical School)
Co-Mentor: Michael Chernew, Ph.D. (Harvard Medical School)
Harkness Placement: Harvard Medical School
Biography at time of Harkness Fellowship: Rudy Douven, Ph.D., M.Sc., a 2013-14 Dutch Commonwealth Fund/VWS Harkness Fellow in Health Care Policy and Practice, is a health economist and policy advisor. He has been a researcher at CPB, the Netherlands Bureau for Economic Policy Analysis, since 1996, where his work for the last ten years has focused on health policy and reform. His work has often bridged the gap between research and policy; for example, he was responsible for the formal analysis of the proposed health policy measures by the political parties during the general elections in 2010 and 2012. He also spearheaded the research that led in 2011 to make health insurers responsible for controlling the total level of health care expenditure. He has published research in many international economics journals including Journal of Health Economics and International Journal of Health Care Finance and Economics. Douven holds a master’s degree of science from Technical University Eindhoven and received his Ph.D. in international economics, game theory, and econometrics from the Tilburg University in the Netherlands.
Project: Douven aims to study, both theoretically and empirically, the design and functioning of global budgets, and whether they can lower total health expenditure and enhance welfare. His focus will be on how global budgets can be used as cost containment strategies. Global budgets are not only used in U.S. contracts – such as in accountable care organizations (ACOs) and the BlueCross BlueShield Massachusetts Alternative Quality Contract (AQC) – but are also employed in the Dutch health care market. Global budgets will be analyzed on their volume and price specifications, quality thresholds, and other features. In the Netherlands, contracts between hospitals and insurers will be studied. Douven will also conduct interviews with stakeholders on the design features of global budgets, key indicators, and practical problems of implementation.
Career Activity since Fellowship:
Current Positions: (updated 03/2014)
- Scientific Researcher on Health Care Policy and Practice, The Netherlands Bureau for Economic Policy Analysis (CPB)
- Researcher, Erasmus University Rotterdam
Email: [email protected]
Selected Publications:
