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Thomas Rice

Distinguished Professor

Departments

DepartmentsType of Faculty
Health Policy and ManagementFull Time
Contact Information
Phone: 
310.206.1824
Fax: 
310.825.3317
Email: 
trice@ucla.edu

UCLA Fielding School of Public Health / Department of Health Policy and Management / 31-293C CHS

Areas of Interest: 
  • Health Economics
  • Health Care Systems
  • Competition and Regulation
  • Health Insurance     

Thomas Rice is Professor of the Department of Health Policy and Management. He served as Vice Chancellor, Academic Personnel for the UCLA campus from 2006-11. He teaches courses in health economics, research methodology, and current issues in health policy.

Dr. Rice received his Ph.D. in Economics at the University of California at Berkeley. He has conducted research projects and published in a number of areas, including: physicians' economic behavior; health insurance for the elderly; the Medicare program; health care cost containment; the role of competition in health care reform; and managed care. Dr. Rice has testified before the U.S. Congress numerous times on various health policy issues. He was elected to the Institute of Medicine, National Academy of Science, in 2006. In 1998, he received the Article-of-the-Year Award from the Association for Health Services Research. Dr. Rice served as Editor of the journal, Medical Care Research and Review from 1994-2000. The fourth edition of his book, The Economics of Health Reconsidered, was published in 2016.

Education: 
PhD, University of California Berkeley
Selected Publications: 

Books

  • Rice, Thomas, and Lynn Unruh.  The Economics of Health Reconsidered, 4rd edition (Chicago, Health Administration Press, 2016). 
  • Rice, Thomas, Pauline Rosenau, Lynn J. Unruh, and Andrew J. Barnes.  United States of America:  Health Systems Review.  (Copenhagen, Denmark:  World Health Organization, 2013).
  • Andersen, Ronald M., Thomas H. Rice, and Gerald F. Kominski, eds.  Changing the U.S. Health Care System:  Key Issues in Health Services, Policy, and Management.  3rd edition. (San Francisco, Jossey-Bass, 2007). 

Selected Journal Articles 

  • Berenson, R.A., and Thomas Rice.  “Beyond Measurement and Reward:  Methods of Motivating Quality Improvement and Accountability.” Health Services Research 50 (Supplement 2), December 2015: 2155-2186.
  • Barnes, Andrew J., Yaniv Hanoch, and Thomas Rice.  “Determinants of Coverage Decisions in Health Insurance Marketplaces:  Consumers’ Decision-Making Abilities and the Amount of Information in Their Choice Environment.”  Health Services Research 50(1), February 2015: 58-80.
  • Rice, Thomas, Lynn Y. Unruh, Pauline Rosenau, Andrew J. Barnes, Richard B. Saltman and Ewout van Ginneken.  “Challenges Facing the United States of America in Implementing Universal Coverage.   Bulletin of the World Health Organization ;92:894–902, December 2014:
  • Rice, Thomas, Gretchen Jacobson, Juliette Cubanski, and Tricia Neuman.  “The Private Health Insurance Choices of Medicare Beneficiaries: How Much Does Price Matter?”  Medical Care Research and Review 71(6), December 2014: 661-689. 
  • Rice, Thomas.  “The Behavioral Economics of Health and Health Care.”  Annual Review of Public Health 34, 2013, pp. 431-447.
  • Rice, Thomas, and Janet Cummings. “Reducing the Number of Drug Plans for Seniors: A Proposal and Analysis of Three Case Studies.” Journal of Health Politics, Policy and Law, December 2010, pp. 961-997.
  • Vladeck, Bruce C., and Thomas Rice. "Market Failure and the Failure of Discourse: Facing Up to the Power of Sellers." Health Affairs 28(5), September/October 2009, pp. 1305-1315.
  • Hanoch, Yaniv, Thomas Rice, Janet Cummings, and Stacey Wood. “How Much Choice is Too Much?: The Case of the Medicare Prescription Drug Benefit.” Health Services Research 44(4), August 2009, pp. 1157-1168.
  • Rice, Thomas. “The Ownership Society and Health.” Health Services Research 41(6), pp. 2025-2032, December 2006.
  • Hanoch, Yaniv., and Thomas Rice, “Can Limiting Choice Increase Social Welfare?: The Elderly and Health Insurance. Milbank Quarterly 84(1), April 2006, pp. 37-73.
  • Rice, Thomas, and Katherine A. Desmond, “The Distributional Consequences of a Medicare ‘Premium Support’ Proposal.” Journal of Health Politics, Policy, and Law 29(6), December 2004, pp. 1187-1226.
  • Rice, Thomas, and Karen Y. Matsuoka, “The Impact of Cost Sharing on Appropriate Utilization and Health Status: A Review of the Literature on Seniors.” Medical Care Research and Review 61(4), December 2004, pp. 415-452.
  • Laugesen, Miriam, J., and Thomas Rice, "Is the Doctor In? The Evolving Role of Organized Medicine in Health Policy." Journal of Health Politics, Policy and Law 23(2-3), April-June, 2003, pp. 289-316.
  • Rice, Thomas, "Individual Autonomy and State Involvement in Health Care," Journal of Medical Ethics 27(4), August 2001, pp. 240-244.
  • Rice, Thomas, Sally Stearns, Donal E. Pathman, Susan DesHarnais, Michelle Brasure, and Ming Tai-Seale, "A Tale of Two Bounties: The Impact of Competing Fees on Physician Behavior." Journal of Health Politics, Policy and Law 24(6), Dec. 1999, pp. 1307-1330.
  • Rice, T., "Can Markets Give Us the Health Care System We Want?" Journal of Health Politics, Policy, and Law 22(2), April 1997, pp. 383-426.
  • Rice, Thomas. "Recent Changes in Physician Payment Policies: Impacts and Implications." Annual Review of Public Health 18, 1997, pp. 549-565.          
  • Rice, Thomas, and Kathleen R. Morrison. "Patient Cost Sharing for Medical Services: A Review of the Literature and Implications for Health Care Reform." Medical Care Review 51(3), Fall 1994, pp. 235-287.
  • Labelle, Roberta, Greg Stoddart, and Thomas Rice. "A Re-Examination of the Meaning and Importance of Supplier-Induced Demand." Journal of Health Economics 13(3), October 1994, pp. 347-368.
  • Rice, Thomas, E. Richard Brown, and Roberta Wyn. "Holes in the Jackson Hole Approach to Health Care Reform." Journal of the American Medical Association 270(11), Sept. 15, 1993, pp. 1357-1362. (Article was reprinted in the October 14, 1993 Congressional Record, pp. E2434-E2436.)
  • Rice, Thomas. "Containing Health Care Costs in the United States." Medical Care Review 49(1), Spring 1992, pp. 19-65.