Martin Cohen

Dr. Martin Cohen, Associate Professor, joined the Department of Health Administration and Policy after more than 30 years of health policy consulting experience – primarily helping large federal health programs design, implement, and evaluate policy changes. Dr. Cohen was a long-time consultant to the Department of Defense on health benefit design, alternative payment models, managed care contracting, and strategic options for reform of the Military Health System’s TRICARE program.

He led evaluation projects for the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) and a range of cost analyses for the Veterans Health Administration’s Community Care program. Dr. Cohen’s research interests also include performance reporting and provision of feedback data for healthcare providers and organizations, program evaluation, and diffusion of innovation.

Degrees

• PhD, Public Policy, George Mason University, 2015
• MPA, Public Administration, Harvard University, 1992
• BA, Government, Harvard University, 1986

Research

Research Interests

• Health insurance and benefit design
• Managed care contracting
• Alternative payment models and value-based care
• Projecting and evaluating cost impacts of policy changes
• The military health system
• Provision of feedback data for healthcare providers and organizations
• Program evaluation
• Diffusion of innovation

Select Publications

1. Cohen, M., Irie, S., Russo, A., Pav, V., O’Connor, S., & Wensky, S. (2019). Lessons Learned in Providing Claims-Based Data to Participants in Health Care Innovation Models. American Journal of Medical Quality, 34, 234-242. https://doi.org/10.1177/1062860618798715. 
2. Cohen, M., Russo, A., Kennell, D., Irie, S., Derzon, J., Smith, K., ... Cromwell, J. (2018, February). Systematic Review of CMMI Primary Care Initiatives: Final Report, prepared for the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services. https://innovation.cms.gov/Files/reports/primarycare-finalevalrpt.pdf 
3. Cohen, M. (2016). Impact of the HITECH Financial Incentives on EHR Adoption in Small, Physician-Owned Practices. International Journal of Medical Informatics, 94, 143-154. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijmedinf.2016.06.017 
4. Jeffery, D., Cohen, M., Brooks, A., Linton, A., Gromadzki, R., & Hunter, C. (2013). Impact of the 2009 Influenza (H1N1) Pandemic on the United States Military Health Care System. Military Medicine, 178, 653-658. https://doi.org/10.7205/MILMED-D-12-00345 
5. Thomas, F., Caplan, C., Levy, J., Cohen, M., Leonard, J., Caldis, T., & Mueller, C. Clinician Feedback on Using Episode Groupers with Medicare Claims Data. (2009). Health Care Financing Review, 31, 51-61. https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC4195067/