Bio: Ronald J. Paterson, a 1998-99 Commonwealth Fund Harkness Fellow in Health Care Policy, is chief advisor at the Ministry of Health in Wellington, New Zealand, with responsibilities for advising on law and policy related to consumer protection, mental health, and public health. He is also a senior lecturer at the University of Auckland, where he teaches health care law and ethics to law and medical students; and serves as deputy director of the Research Unit for the Ethical and Legal Analysis of Health Care at the University of Auckland. His research interests include privacy of health information, rationing health care and human rights, and patients' rights. He has written and published extensively in these areas. Mr. Paterson qualified in law in 1978 and practiced in Auckland; completed a Masters in Law at Oxford University in 1981; was a visiting professor of law at the Universities of Ottawa and British Columbia 1983-85; and joined the Faculty of Law at the University of Auckland in 1986. He was Fulbright Visiting Professor of Biomedical Ethics at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio in 1993; worked for the Northern Regional Health Authority in Auckland in 1994-95; and joined the Ministry of Health in 1996.
Placement: Georgetown University
Mentors: Judith Feder, Ph.D.
Project: Patients' Rights in Managed Care: An Evaluation of the Role of Statutory Protections
Description: The aim of Paterson's project was to examine the implementation, and assess the early impact, of managed care consumer protections in four states--Missouri, New Jersey, Texas and Vermont--which had recently enacted significant reforms. He reviewed published literature and policy documents, and interviewed key informants from regulators, health plans, provider groups, and consumer groups on their experiences and assessments of the consumer protections.