Huntley Quelch Professor of Health Care Economics
Health Policy and Management
Professor of Medicine
Medicine-Brigham and Women's Hospital
Harvard Medical School
Dr. Sommers is a health economist and a physician whose main research interests are health policy for vulnerable populations, the uninsured, and the health care safety net. He is the Huntley Quelch Professor of Health Care Economics at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health and Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School. He has received numerous awards for his research, including the Outstanding Dissertation Award, Alice Hersh New Investigator Award, the 2015 Article-of-the-Year Award, and the 2017 Health Services Research Impact Award from AcademyHealth, a preeminent national association of health policy researchers; and the Outstanding Junior Investigator Award from the Society of General Internal Medicine. He was elected to the National Academy of Medicine in 2019. His research has been published in leading journals including the New England Journal of Medicine, JAMA, Journal of Health Economics, and Health Affairs. His research has been profiled in the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, and National Public Radio. He has testified before Congress and advised state Medicaid programs.
Dr. Sommers has served in the federal government in multiple leadership roles. In January 2021, he was appointed by President Biden as the Deputy Assistant Secretary for Health Policy in the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation (ASPE), at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, and he served in that role until early 2023. From 2022-2023, he was appointed to lead ASPE as the Senior Official Performing the Duties of the Assistant Secretary. Previously, he served as a Senior Advisor in ASPE from 2011-2016, and he served in a part-time capacity as a Senior Counselor to the Assistant Secretary in 2023.
He received a PhD in Health Policy from Harvard and an MD from Harvard Medical School.
Teaching
HPM 211: The Health Care Safety Net and Vulnerable Populations
Course Catalog Description
Course Webpage (HarvardKey Login Required)
HPM 545: Economics of Health Care: Public vs. Market Resolutions
Course Catalog Description
Course Webpage (HarvardKey Login Required)
U.S. Health Policy (Harvard X Open Enrollment Course), Medicaid Lecture
Course Webpage (Free registration)
BA, 2000, English
Princeton University, Princeton, NJ
PhD, 2005, Health Policy (Economics Concentration)
Harvard University, Cambridge, MA
MD, 2007, Medicine
Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA
2010, Residency - Internal Medicine & Primary Care
Brigham & Women's Hospital, Boston, MA
Roger L. Nichols Excellence in Teaching Award
Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health
ScholarGPS #1 Ranked Scholar on Health Insurance
ScholarGPS.com
CMS Program Impact Award
Center for Medicare & Medicare Services
National Academy of Medicine - Elected Member
National Academy of Medicine
AcademyHealth Impact Award for Health Services Research
AcademyHealth
AcademyHealth Alice Hersh New Investigator Award
AcademyHealth
AcademyHealth Article of the Year Award
AcademyHealth
SGIM Outstanding Junior Investigator
Society for General internal Medicine
Teaching Citation
Harvard School of Public Health
Hamolsky Award
Society for General Internal Medicine Annual Meeting
Best Oral Presentation in Scientific Abstracts
Society for General Internal Medicine, New England Region
Faculty Mentor Award
Brigham & Women’s Department of Medicine
Best Residents and Fellows at Harvard Medical School
Harvard Medical School
Resident Mentor Award
Brigham & Women’s Department of Medicine
Daniel E. Ford Award in Health Services Research
Johns Hopkins, Division of General Medicine
Robert Ebert Award in Primary Care Medicine
Harvard Medical School
AcademyHealth National Dissertation Award
AcademyHealth
Blendon RJ, Blumenthal D, Glied S, Sommers BD, Rosenthal MB, McWilliams JM, Dusetzina SB, Figueroa JF, Yearby R, Alsan M, Kim JJ, Rubin EJ.
N Engl J Med. 2024 Oct 17. 391(15):e36. PMID: 39413384
Sommers BD, Gullett LR, Hornstein SB.
JAMA Health Forum. 2024 Oct 04. 5(10):e244523. PMID: 39480451
Glied S, Sommers BD.
N Engl J Med. 2024 Oct 17. 391(15):1369-1372. PMID: 39357036
Sommers BD, Smith RB, Figueroa JF.
J Health Polit Policy Law. 2024 Sep 27. PMID: 39327779
Kishore S, Kishore SP, Clark C, Sommers BD.
PLoS One. 2024. 19(9):e0310523. PMID: 39292692
Amba V, Cooper MSL, Sommers BD.
JAMA. 2024 09 17. 332(11):867-868. PMID: 39102222
DiMeo A, Logendran R, Sommers BD, Beecroft A, Herencia YP, Bazan M, Wade C, Sprankle J, Sullivan MM, Molina RL.
Am J Public Health. 2024 Oct. 114(10):1051-1060. PMID: 39146520
Sommers BD.
JAMA Health Forum. 2024 Jul 05. 5(7):e242937. PMID: 39052284
McIntyre A, Sommers BD, Aboulafia G, Phelan J, Orav EJ, Epstein AM, Figueroa JF.
JAMA Health Forum. 2024 Jun 07. 5(6):e242193. PMID: 38943683
Sertkaya A, Beleche T, Jessup A, Sommers BD.
JAMA Netw Open. 2024 Jun 03. 7(6):e2415445. PMID: 38941099
A JAMA Forum piece co-authored by Harvard Chan School’s Ben Sommers explores the cost and benefits of Medicaid expansion in Mississippi.
At a symposium, a dozen experts discussed how health care in the U.S. can be more accessible, more affordable, and more equitable during the next presidential administration.
Far more people were enrolled in Medicaid during the pandemic than who reported in surveys having coverage—a discrepancy suggesting that many people were unaware that their coverage had continued under federal policies, according to a new Harvard Chan…
Medicare patients who were at the highest risk for severe COVID-19—such as Black patients, patients older than 90, and patients living in nursing homes—received antiviral treatments less often than those who had the least risk, according to a…
Physician and health economist Benjamin Sommers spent two years on leave from Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health to serve in the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
