Bio: James Pearse, a 2000-01 Commonwealth Fund Harkness Fellow in Health Care Policy, is director of the New South Wales (NSW) Department of Health's Structural and Funding Policy Unit. He has led work on the establishment of annual hospital DRG cost data collection for public hospitals in NSW, led the preparation and analysis of case-mix standards for NSW public hospitals, and was a major contributor to NSW's plan to increase efficiency and improve equity and quality in public hospitals. Pearse has also contributed to national and state health reform initiatives and the negotiation of Commonwealth/State funding arrangements for hospital services. Recently, he participated in the development of a framework for measuring national health system performance. His publications have focused on the fiscal relationships among federal and state governments, case-mix classification, efficiency of Australian hospitals, and costs of providing health services to indigenous peoples. Pearse received his M.Sc. in health economics from the University of York. Pearse is spending his Harkness Fellowship conducting an evaluation of weighted capitation funding models and their potential use in United States and Australia at the Johns Hopkins University's Bloomberg School of Public Health.
Placement: Johns Hopkins University
Mentors: Gerard Anderson, Ph.D.
Project: Health-Based Risk Adjustment for Capitation Payment in the United States: Implications for Australia
Description: James Pearse's project sought to explore the rationale for implementation of risk adjustment in capitation payment, the barriers to adopting risk adjustment, and other elements of the policy framework required for successful operation of these arrangements. He interviewed 30 key informants representing a variety of perspectives, including from government, provider, insurer, and academic communities.