Sally Stearns, PhD, is a health economist whose research interests include comparative effectiveness research, economic evaluation, Medicare, nursing home use, nursing home staffing, and health care use at the end of life. Her current research focuses on health outcomes and resource use for Medicare beneficiaries, particularly the system-level innovation of care models within short- and long-term nursing facilities and treatment models in emergency departments. From 2010-2016 she was the Principal Investigator for the Cardiovascular Outcomes Research Center, which was funded by the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute as part of the Atherosclerosis Risk in Communities Study. Dr. Stearns also served as a Senior Analyst at the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation (ASPE) in the Department of Health and Human Services as part of her experience as a Health and Aging Policy Fellow from 2011-2012. Her work at ASPE included analysis of hospice utilization and reimbursement, Medicare physician group formation, and care by hospitalists. This work highlighted possible changes in reimbursement methodology that were legislated as part of the Affordable Care Act. Dr. Stearns is currently serving as a Senior Advisor at ASPE in supporting review of proposals submitted to the Physician-Focused Payment Model Technical Advisory Committee (PTAC). In addition, she is the editor-in-chief of Health Economics, a journal published by Wiley.
Sally Clark Stearns
PhD
Professor, Health Policy and Management; Adjunct Professor, Economics, UNC-Chapel Hill