Deborah Anne Freund

Deborah Freund is a health economist, former President of Claremont Graduate University, Provost at Syracuse University, and Vice Chancellor and Dean of the Faculty at Indiana University. She is now an adjunct professor in the Department of Health Policy and Management at UCLA and a Research Full Professor at Claremont Graduate University. The focus of her research is Medicaid managed care, Pharmacoeconomics, health insurance, health outcomes, and disparities. She was the first person to negotiate Medicaid Managed Care contracts in New York State and helped implement the two-plan model in California. She also was the co-developer of what is now the Medical Care Expenditure Panel Survey. In the 1980s she wrote Legislation for the Medicare Program, The National Health Insurance Program in Australia, that required the Pharmaceutical Benefits Advisory Committee to conduct cost effectiveness analyses when pricing new pharmaceuticals on the Australian National Formulary. She serves or has served on the board of several important organizations, including Cedars Sinai, Children’s Hospital of Los Angeles, San Antonio Regional Hospital, The Institute for Clinical and Economic Review (ICER) and Excellus Blue Cross and Blue Shield. She also was on the Board of what is now called AcademyHealth and served as Executive Director of ASHEcon, The American Society of Health Economists. In the past she consulted for what is now CMS, testified in front of Congress several times, and chaired the Medical Care Section of The American Public Health Association. She won the J.S. Drotman Award from the American Public Health Association and the Kershaw Prize from The Association of Public Policy Analysis and Management.