Rachel M. Werner, MD, PhD is the Executive Director of the Leonard Davis Institute of Health Economics. She is Professor of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania Perelman School of Medicine as well as the Robert D. Eilers Professor of Health Care Management and Economics at the Wharton School and a physician at the Philadelphia VA.
Over the last two decades, Dr. Werner has built a foundational research program examining the effects of health care policies on health care delivery, using methods designed to draw causal inference from observational data. She has investigated the unintended consequences of quality improvement incentives, and was among the first to recognize that public reporting of quality information may worsen racial disparities.
Her research has been published in high-impact peer-reviewed journals, including New England Journal of Medicine, JAMA, and Health Affairs. Beyond publication, Dr. Werner has influenced research and policy as a member of many advisory committees to the state and federal government as well as research foundations. She is a Core Investigator with the VA HSR&D Center for Health Equity Research and Promotion (CHERP).
Dr. Werner has received numerous awards for her work, including the Alice Hersh New Investigator Award from AcademyHealth, the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers, and the American Federation of Medical Research (AFMR) Outstanding Investigator Award. She is an elected member of the National Academy of Medicine. She received her medical degree and doctoral degree in Health Economics from the University of Pennsylvania.
Areas of Expertise | Health Care Disparities, Long-Term and Post-Acute Care, Provider Payment, Financial Incentives
Clinical Area | General Internal Medicine
Selected Publications:
Chatterjee P, Werner RM. Gender disparity in citations in high-impact journal articles. JAMA Network Open. 2021; 4:e2114509. doi: 10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2021.14509
Coe NB, Werner RM. Informal caregivers provide considerable support in residential care facilities and nursing homes. Health Affairs. 2022; 41:105-111. doi: 10.1377/hlthaff.2021.01239
Park S, Werner RM, Coe NB. Racial and ethnic disparities in access to and enrollment in high-quality Medicare Advantage plans. Health Services Research. 2023; 58:303-313. PMID: 35342936 doi: 10.1111/1475-6773.13977
Werner RM, Konetzka RT, Grabowski DC, Stevenson DG. Reforming nursing home financing, payment, and oversight. New England Journal of Medicine. 2022; 386:1869-1871. doi: 10.1056/NEJMp2203429
Werner RM, Coe NB, Qi M, Konetzka RT. The value of an additional day of post-acute care in a skilled nursing facility. American Journal of Health Economics. 2023; 9:1-21. doi: 10.1086/721706
Visit Dr. Werner's Google Scholar page to view more publications