Harkness Project Title: Designing a Value-Based Plan to Cover the Uninsured

Mentor: Mike Chernew, Ph.D.

Placement: Department of Health Care Policy, Harvard Medical School, Boston

Biography at time of Harkness Fellowship: Rhema Vaithianathan, Ph.D., a 2007–08 Commonwealth Fund Harkness Fellow in Health Care Policy and Practice, is a health economist and senior lecturer at the University of Auckland. Previously, she was a research fellow at Australian National University, economic consultant to the New Zealand Health Funding Authority, and policy analyst at the New Zealand Treasury. Her interests lie in health care financing systems and policy on the international level. Vaithianathan's research on topics including adverse selection , rank dependent utility analysis, cost-sharing, and imperfect competition in health insurance markets, has been published in the Journal of Health Economics, Journal of Health Services Research and Policy, Economic Theory, and Australian Economic Review. She was awarded the University of Auckland's Business School Research Excellence Award and Prize for Best Doctoral Dissertation in Business/Economics. She earned both her doctorate in economics and master's of commerce from the University of Auckland.

Career Activity Since Fellowship

•  Associate Professor, University of Auckland, 2009

Current Position: Associate Professor, University of Auckland. (Updated August 2010)

E-mail: r.vaithianathan@auckland.ac.nz

Harkness-Related Publications

Panattoni L, Vaithianathan R, Ashton T, Lewis GH. “Predictive Risk Modelling in Health: Options for Australia and New Zealand.” Australian Health Review, 2010. (In press)

Vaithianathan R, Lewis G. “The NHS as an insurer.” Journal of Health Services Research and Policy, 2010. (In press)

Vaithianathan R, Lewis G. “The NHS as an insurer.” Journal of Health Services Research and Policy, 2010 Jul; 15(3):171-3. Epub 2010 Mar 4.

Vaithianathan R, Lewis, G.  “Operational Independence for the NHS”, BMJ 2008; 337:1497.

Vaithianathan R, Hockey PM, Moore TJ, Bates DW, “Iatrogenic Effects of Coxibs in the US Population: Findings from the Medical Expenditure Panel Survey,” Accepted for publication in Drug Safety, Oct 2008.