Harkness Project Title: Use of Risk Adjustment for Capitation Payment

Mentor: Gerard F. Anderson, Ph.D.

Placement: Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health

Biography at time of Harkness Fellowship: James Pearse, a 2000-01 Commonwealth Fund Harkness Fellow in Health Care Policy, is director of the New South Wales (NSW) Department of Health’s Structural and Funding Policy Unit. He has led work on the establishment of annual hospital DRG cost data collection for public hospitals in NSW, led the preparation and analysis of case-mix standards for NSW public hospitals, and was a major contributor to NSW’s plan to increase efficiency and improve equity and quality in public hospitals.  Pearse has also contributed to national and state health reform initiatives and the negotiation of Commonwealth/State funding arrangements for hospital services. Recently he participated in the development of a framework for measuring national health system performance. His publications have focused on the fiscal relationships among federal and state governments, case-mix classification, efficiency of Australian hospitals, and costs of providing health services to indigenous peoples.  Pearse received his M.Sc. in health economics from the University of York.  Pearse is spending his Harkness Fellowship conducting an evaluation of weighted capitation funding models and their potential use in United States and Australia at the Johns Hopkins University’s Bloomberg School of Public Health.

Career Activity Since Fellowship

• Associate Professor, Centre for Health Service Development, University of Wollongong, 2003
• Director, Health Policy Analysis Pty Ltd, 2003
• Honorary Senior Fellow, George Institute for International Health, 2003
• Adjunct Associate, Center for Primary Care and Outcomes Research, Stanford University 

Current Positions:

• Associate Professor, Centre for Health Service Development, University of Wollongong
• Director, Health Policy Analysis Pty Ltd

(Updated August 2010)

E-Mail: jpearse@healthpolicy.com.au

Harkness-Related Publications

Willcox S, Seddon M, Dunn S, Edwards RT, Pearse J, Tu JV. “Measuring and Reducing Waiting Times: Cross-National Comparison Of Strategies,” Health Affairs 2007 26(4): 1078-1087.

Gibbs A, Pearse EJ, Sheehan JA, Meleady KT, Jayasinha H and Jones N. “Estimating and Projecting Sub-Acute Care Demand: Finding from a review of international models.” Australian Health Review 2008. 32 (4): 778-785.