Paul B. Ginsburg, PhD

Dr. Ginsburg has been a public trustee of the Academy’s Board of Trustees since 2003.  He is president of the Center for Studying Health System Change (HSC). Founded in 1995, HSC conducts research to inform policymakers and other audiences about changes in organization of financing and delivery of care and their effects on people. Data are gathered through the Community Tracking Study, which includes surveys households and physicians and conducts site visits to interview health system leaders in 12 communities that are representative of the nation. HSC is widely known for the objectivity and technical quality of its research and its success in communicating it to policy makers and the media as well as to the research community. A sister organization to Mathematica Policy Research, Inc., HSC is funded principally by The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, but also receives funding from other foundations and from government agencies.

Dr. Ginsburg served as the founding executive director of the Physician Payment Review Commission (now the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission). Widely regarded as highly influential, the Commission developed the Medicare physician payment reform proposal that was enacted by the Congress in 1989. Dr. Ginsburg was a senior economist at RAND and served as deputy assistant director at the Congressional Budget Office. Before that, he served on the faculties of Duke and Michigan State Universities. He earned his doctorate in economics from Harvard University.

Dr. Ginsburg is a noted speaker and consultant on the changes taking place in the health care system and the future outlook. In addition to presentations on the overall direction of change, recent topics have included cost trends and drivers, consumer driven health care, and competition in health care. In 2007, for the fifth time, Dr. Ginsburg was named by Modern Healthcare as one of the 100 most powerful persons in health care. He recently received the first annual HSR Impact Award from AcademyHealth, the professional association for health policy researchers and analysts. He is a founding member of the National Academy of Social Insurance and served two elected terms on the Board of AcademyHealth, the professional association for health policy researchers and analysts.