Randall P. Ellis

Randall P. Ellis, Ph.D., is a professor in the Department of Economics at Boston University, where he has been on the faculty since 1981. He earned his Ph.D. in economics from MIT after attending Yale University and the London School of Economics and Political Science. For 40 years his research has focused primarily on health economics, spanning both US and international economics topics, and including the economics of health in developing countries.

Dr. Ellis is Past President of the American Society of Health Economists and an associate editor of the Journal of Health Economics and American Journal of Health Economics. An entrepreneur, he co-founded DxCG, Inc. in 1996 (now part of Cotiviti, Inc.), a healthcare information and consulting firm, in which he currently has no economic interest. Dr. Ellis was principal or co-investigator on numerous research projects that developed Diagnostic Cost Group (DCG) and Hierarchical Condition Category (HCC) models, with funding from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), and others. CMS now uses HCC models to risk adjust payments to Medicare Advantage (Part C) health plans, Part D prescription drug plans and the Health Insurance Exchanges. This body of risk adjustment work received the AcademyHealth 2008 Health Services Research Impact Award.

Dr. Ellis has written and coauthored over 140 articles, reports and papers. Many have focused on risk adjustment, but others explore provider response to reimbursement systems; optimal insurance; health plan competition; the economics of mental health; health demand modeling in developing countries; and the cost-effectiveness of cancer screening. His recent research funding has been from the Agency for HealthCare Research and Quality (AHRQ) and the Social Science Research Council (SSRC).