My research centers on aligning incentives with evidence-based, integrated care for people with mental health and/or substance use conditions. One type of incentives I study are provider payment models that adequately cover the costs of care but also provide incentives for doing what works the best for patients and their families. Our work makes innovative use of data resulting from clinical tracking and registries, but also conducts and is informed by extensive engagement of stakeholders such as providers, patients, and payers. An example is our recent work that developed a decision-support tool for bundled payment design for early psychosis interventions.

    I co-lead an ongoing project funded by NIH’s HEAL initiative with colleagues at NYU and New York State Office of Addiction Services and Supports (OASAS). This project aims to assist Opioid Treatment Programs (OTPs) in New York State with flexible methadone take-home medication following the regulatory and practice changes that started in the COVID-19 pandemic. I lead a component of the intervention to address uncertainty regarding revenue and assist OTPs to take advantage of bundled payment for methadone provided by New York State Medicaid.  

Another major focus of my research is evaluations of policies addressing unsafe opioid analgesics. We are a leading research team to assess Prescription Drug Monitoring Programs (PDMPs) and policies. We are also leading researchers in assessing unintended effects of these policies, with particular attention to patients receiving long-term opioid therapies, patients with cancer-related pain, and patients with sickle cell disease. We also study related policies such as marijuana legalization and implications for opioid use and pain management outcomes among patients with cancer-related pain.

   In two ongoing projects funded by the National Cancer Institute and the American Cancer Society, we are conducting systematic investigation of intended and unintended outcomes of PDMP policies, state legislative limits for prescription opioids, and other related policies among cancer survivor populations with varying cost-benefit tradeoffs associated with opioid analgesics.  

I developed and teach a course in the Population Health Sciences Master’s program titled “Incentives in the U.S. Healthcare System”, with the aim to cultivate the “lens of incentives” students can apply to understanding and examining current issues and stakeholders in health care.   

I am devoted to mentoring and enjoy working with colleagues in many different disciplines and at all stages of their research careers. I am an investigator of the NIDA-funded Center for Health Economics of Treatment Interventions for Substance Use Disorder, HCV, and HIV (CHERISH) and take a leading role in developing and coordinating the Center’s mentoring program.