Summaries of Independent Scientist (K) Awards

Bundorf, Kate M.

Institution: Stanford University
Grant Title: Health Plan Choice: Implications for Consumers & Purchasers
Grant Number: K02 HS11668
Duration: 5 years (2001-2006)
Total Award: $383,000

Project Description: The purpose of this research is to determine how choice among competing health plans within group purchasing arrangements can most effectively be designed to provide access to and deliver high quality, high-value health care to consumers. This project has three main goals:

1. To analyze how individuals choose among alternative health plans, focusing on how characteristics of managed care plans influence the choices of different types of consumers.
2. To examine the effects of group purchasing strategies relying on choice among competing plans on cost and access to health insurance for consumers and purchasers, and to determine how the mix of individuals within a purchasing group affects these outcomes.
3. To determine how differences between public and private purchasers in their objectives and the composition of their covered populations affect the feasibility and optimal design of group health insurance purchasing arrangements.

Career Goals: Dr. Bundorf is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Health Research and Policy in the Stanford University School of Medicine. She is a Fellow at the Centers for Health Policy and Primary Care and Outcomes Research at Standord University. Dr. Bundorf is also a Faculty Research Fellow in the Health Care Program of the National Bureau of Economics Research (NBER) at Stanford.  Dr. Bundorf's career development goals include formal training in three new methodological areas, mentoring, and research collaborations with senior investigators.

Progress to Date: Dr. Bundorf has conducted research in the areas of affordability of health insurance for individuals, the determinants and effects of offering health plan choice within employment-based purchasing groups, how employer benefit design effects worker enrollment decisions, the effects of health plan quality reporting by public and private purchasers, the incidence of the costs of employer-sponsored health insurance, the effect of health insurance status on consumer use of health information, and the effect of mandated health benefits on medical care treatments and outcomes. These projects have resulted in published papers in JAMA, the Journal of Health Economics, and Health Services Research and have been released as NBER working papers. Her project on the incidence of health care costs of obesity received significant media coverage. She has received additional funding for her work from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation through the Economic Research Initiative on the Uninsured and the National Institute on Aging.

Future Plans: Dr. Bundorf plans to continue work which examines why people are uninsured in the United States, approaching the question using multiple methodologies. She will focus on the relationship between health and socioeconomic status in insurance decisions. Through a grant from the National Institute on Ageing, she will examine similar issues in the context of Medicare beneficiaries.

Highlights and Specific Accomplishments:

• Awards:
  • Most outstanding abstract within Health Insurance Markets Theme, 2004 AcademyHealth Annual Research Meeting. The Incidence of the Healthcare Costs of Obesity.

K-Generated Publications:

• Bundorf MK. Employee Demand for Health Insurance and Employer Health Plan Choices. Journal of Health Economics 2002;21:65-88.
• Baker LC, Wagner TH, Singer S, Bundorf MK. Use of the Internet and E-Mail for Health Care Information: Results from a National Survey. JAMA 2003;289(18):2400-6.
• Bundorf MK, Singer S, Wagner T, Baker LC. Consumer Search for Information about Health Insurance and the Role of the Internet. American Journal of Managed Care 2004 Sep;10(9):609-16.
• Nicholson S, Bundorf MK, Stein R, Polsky D. The Magnitude and Nature of Risk Selection in Employer-Sponsored Health Plans. Health Services Research 2004;39(6 Part 1):1817-38.
• Polsky D, Stein R, Nicholson, Bundorf MK. Employer Health Insurance Offerings and Employee Enrollment Decisions. Health Services Research 2005 (in press).
• Wagner TH, Baker LC, Bundorf MK, Singer S. Use of the Internet for Health Information by the Chronically Ill. Preventing Chronic Disease. 2004. Available at http://www.cdc.gov/pcd/issues/archive.htm.
• Bhattacharya J, Bundorf MK. The Incidence of the Health Care Costs of Obesity. NBER Working Paper 11303, May 2005.

AHRQ Research Portfolios: Care Management; Training.
AHRQ Goals: Efficiency

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