Senior Fellow, Center on Health Policy, The Brookings Institution. Former Chief Economist for Council of Economic Advisers.
Washington, DC
Joined February 2017
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My new piece @Health_Affairs Forefront finds that if the House bill becomes law and enhanced premium tax credits expire on schedule, the US will see an unprecedented increase in the uninsured rate, wiping out about ~3/4 of the post-2013 decline.
The role of brokers in Medicare Advantage remains underexplored in my view, so I was intrigued to see this new paper from @djmeyers2 and @jeffreydmarr examining recent insurer changes in commission payment and the effects on enrollment choices.
Full paper here: healthaffairs.org/doi/pdf/10…
Matt Fiedler retweeted
I dug into the finances of the three nonprofit arbitrators resolving No Surprises Act disputes. For every dollar they made in '25, ~half was pure profit.
Read more about these 'mini-gods' and how they're getting rich off their new jobs.
tinyurl.com/5ye2csun via @statnews
Matt Fiedler retweeted
1/ Finally, a paper I've wanted to see for years.
Linehan, Niknam & Buntin test whether Medicare's "site-neutral" rates actually match what physician offices would be paid for the same care.
We raise this in nearly every site-neutral comment letter.
jamanetwork.com/journals/jam…
New paper w/ Sam Peterson uses hospital price transparency data to take an up-to-date look at how the prices that MA plans pay for hospital care compare to TM’s prices. Bottom line: MA plans continue to pay prices close to TM’s, at least on average. 🧵
Matt Fiedler retweeted
Pallone’s new bill would replace federal No Surprises Act arbitration starting in 2028.
That would likely ↓ premiums over time through two channels:
(1) less spending administering disputes
(2) lower payments for affected services
A 🧵on the economics.
1/11
News: Pallone is unveiling an overhaul of the surprise billing law today
He says private equity backed providers are gaming the system.
He would replace the arbitration system with “benchmarking.” Different approach than Ways and Means
punchbowl.news/article/healt…
Disappointed that the Trump administration’s new Transparency in Coverage (TiC) final rule adopts JSON as the standard file format. This step ensures that work with the TiC files will continue to face major (unnecessary!) barriers to entry.
The comment letter that Yihan Shi and I submitted on the proposed rule lays out why JSON is so poorly suited to this purpose and what better options exist: brookings.edu/articles/comme…
Final rule: federalregister.gov/public-i…
Fact sheet: cms.gov/newsroom/fact-sheets…
Matt Fiedler retweeted
MedPAC exists to provide Congress independent, nonpartisan technical advice.
Congress prescribing a particular analysis for it to produce is troubling, especially when the practical effect is to require estimates that are mechanically more favorable to MA insurers.
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MedPAC has consistently reported overpayments in Medicare Advantage. Health insurance companies want to kneecap how MedPAC reports these overpayments. Now, insurers have allies in Congress: Republicans, @john_wilkerson reports. statnews.com/2026/09/16/medi…
Forcing MedPAC to ignore favorable selection in some analyses would simply yield misleading estimates. Hard to see any point other than muddying the waters of the MA payment debate.
MedPAC has consistently reported overpayments in Medicare Advantage. Health insurance companies want to kneecap how MedPAC reports these overpayments. Now, insurers have allies in Congress: Republicans, @john_wilkerson reports. statnews.com/2026/09/16/medi…