Acclaimed Researcher, Economist Joins YSPH

A prominent researcher and health economist with wide-ranging research expertise has joined the Yale School of Public Health and become chair of its Department of Health Policy and Management.

Professor Jason Hockenberry, Ph.D., who spent the previous nine years at the Rollins School of Public Health at Emory University in Atlanta, said he looked forward to working with a “stellar cadre” of faculty in the department, and at Yale in general, who are leaders in the national conversations on health and health care policy. Hockenberry officially joined the school in late January.

Hockenberry described his own research interests as multifaceted and diverse. His work falls into three general areas:

• The role that providers play in the outcomes and efficiency of health care delivery. Examples of his research in this area include how the pace of work affects surgical outcomes and resources used to achieve those outcomes, whether physicians respond to new evidence on treatment effectiveness, and to what degree nurse staffing mixes affect a hospital’s quality of care.
• Mental health and substance use-related policy, and the spillover of these policies to other aspects of well-being. Examples of his research in this area include studies of the interplay between cannabis liberalization policies and the opioid epidemic and the role of financing and provider supply on treatment and non-health outcomes.
• Health care financing-related policies, particularly how they might affect vulnerable populations. Examples of his research in this area include studies examining whether the movement toward pay for performance or value-based purchasing schemes has a disproportionate negative effect on safety-net providers, and what this might mean for the patient populations they serve.

“I am excited to be joining a group of faculty in YSPH’s Department of Health Policy and Management who make such substantial contributions to public health policy and health care management research and practice, all while providing world-class educational experiences to the next generation of leaders,” Hockenberry said. “I am humbled by the opportunity to serve in the role of chair and hopefully am able to do so in a way that allows us to expand our impact even further.”

Dean Sten H. Vermund hailed Hockenberry’s arrival at the Yale School of Public Health and also praised Professor Mark Schlesinger, Ph.D., who served as the department’s acting chair for the past three years, for his “superb” service, and Professor Susan Busch, Ph.D., who directed the extensive search that led to Hockenberry’s being hired.

One of the issues that Hockenberry plans to work on is the opioid epidemic, which he sees as one of the defining health challenges of the past decade. While COVID-19 has taken center stage, one of the lasting challenges once the pandemic is brought under control is the longer-term residual effects it will have had on these existing public health challenges around substance misuse and abuse, its treatment, and related policy, he said.