Dr. Rosenthal’s principal research interests revolve around economic incentives that influence consumer and provider health care decisions. She is currently working on a series of related projects that examine evolving trends in the health insurance market, including the use of pay-for-performance, tiered networks, and consumer-directed health plans.
Most recently, Dr. Rosenthal has been collaborating on a study involving interlocking national surveys of health benefit purchasers and health plans to examine efforts to improve the value of health care, including the use of pay-for-performance, tiered networks, and public reporting of quality information. Results from this study will characterize the current state of value-based purchasing, the interplay between purchaser and health plan activities, and the market, purchaser, and health plan factors associated with the adoption of particular strategies.
Dr. Rosenthal is also working on an evaluation of the uptake and impact of health risk appraisals (HRAs) in a large national health plan.
This study will examine:
- overall rates of HRA completion;
- the impact of a consumer financial incentive on HRA completion;
- the characteristics of consumers who opt to complete an HRA (including a comparison of enrollees in traditional managed care plans to enrollees in consumer-directed health plans); and
- early effects of HRAs on health behavior.
Finally, Dr. Rosenthal has begun to examine the implementation of a set of strategies designed to improve the value of health care spending in a Preferred Provider Organization model plan (“the PPO”, hereafter) that insures low-wage workers in a single metropolitan area. The PPO covers 56,000 primary subscribers and their dependents, a many of whom are members of ethnic and racial minority groups. The specific policies to be evaluated are: network narrowing, pay-for-performance, and financial incentives for patients to adhere to recommended prenatal care.