Bio
Michael R. Richards is a Professor of Public Policy within the Cornell Jeb E. Brooks School of Public Policy. He also has a secondary faculty appointment at the Weill Cornell Medical College in NYC. He previously held faculty appoints at Baylor University, Baylor College of Medicine, and Vanderbilt University. His academic training included a postdoctoral research position within the Leonard Davis Institute of Health Economics (LDI) and the Wharton School at University of Pennsylvania from 2013-2015. Prior to joining LDI, Professor Richards completed his PhD in health economics and health policy at Yale University and earned his BS, MD, and MPH degrees from the University of Illinois in Chicago before his time at Yale.
Professor Richards has carried out a variety of empirical studies on US health policy and economic topics, with his primary research area focused on healthcare provider responses to payment policies, regulation, and industry trends (e.g., consolidation and vertical integration). He also has considerable interests in the structure and delivery of the public insurance programs (i.e., Medicare and Medicaid) as well as healthcare workforce issues. His active and broad research portfolio allows him to collaborate with investigators with diverse backgrounds and areas of expertise at a variety of institutions across the US.
He has over 60 publications in leading economics, policy, and healthcare delivery journals. Examples of his recently published work can be found in the New England Journal of Medicine, JAMA Internal Medicine, JAMA Network Open, Health Affairs, Medical Care, Milbank Quarterly, Health Services Research, American Journal of Managed Care, Health Economics, Journal of Health Economics, American Journal of Health Economics, Journal of Policy Analysis and Management, American Economic Journal: Economic Policy, Journal of Human Resources, and the Journal of Public Economics. He currently teaches health economics and health policy to undergraduate, MHA, and EMHA Cornell students and serves as the Director of the Sloan Program in Health Administration within the Brooks School.