Randall P. Ellis

Professor of Economics, College of Arts and Sciences Adjunct Professor, Center for Health Economics Research and Evaluation

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 30 years his research has focused 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. An entrepreneur, he co-founded DxCG, Inc. in 1996 (now part of Verisk Health, 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) models, with funding from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) and others. CMS now uses DCG models to pay Medicare Advantage health plans. This body of work received the AcademyHealth 2008 Health Services Research Impact Award.

Dr. Ellis has written and coauthored over 100 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 Australian Research Council, Verisk Health, and The Commonwealth Fund.