The Heller School Faculty and Staff

Senior Fellow and Director of the Health Industry Forum

mechanic@brandeis.edu Heller 221 781-736-3969

Expertise

Health care reform, hospital finance, medical technology policy, health insurance, Medicare, disease management

Scholarship

  • Mechanic, Robert with C. Baker, T. Lee, Solutions for Massachusetts Healthcare: 2006 (Massachusetts Business Roundtable: Boston Massachusetts), December 2005.
  • Mechanic, Robert, The Medicaid Disproportionate Share Program: Complex Structure - Critical Payments, (National Health Policy Forum: Washington, DC), September 2004.
  • Mechanic, Robert, Will Care Management Improve the Value of U.S. Healthcare?, Background Paper for the 11th Princeton Conference on Managing Cost and Quality in the Delivery System, May 2004.
  • Mechanic, Robert, “What Will Become of the Medical Mecca? Health Spending in Massachusetts, Health Affairs, November/December 2003.
  • Mechanic, Robert, Disease Management: A Promising Approach for Health Care Purchasers, (National Health Care Purchasing Institute: Washington DC), May 2002.
  • Mechanic, Robert with E. Brown, A. Twist, A. Cheatham, Proactive Medical Management (Forrester Research: Cambridge Massachusetts), April 2001.
  • Mechanic, Robert with K. Coleman, A. Dobson, “Teaching Hospital Costs: Implications for Academic Missions in a Competitive Environment,” JAMA, September 1998.
  • Baxter, Raymond and Robert Mechanic, “What is Happening to the Health Care Safety Net?: Local Challenges and Local Responses,” Health Affairs, July/August 1997.
  • Mechanic, Robert and A. Dobson, “The Impact of Managed Care on Clinical Research: A Preliminary Investigation,” Health Affairs, Fall 1996.
Robert Mechanic

Profile

Robert E. Mechanic is Senior Fellow at the Heller School of Social Policy & Management at Brandeis University and Director of the Health Industry Forum, an organization focused on the intersection of health insurance, medical technology, and public policy. Prior to coming to Brandeis, he ran a strategic healthcare consultancy, serving clients in health systems, health plans, and policy research organizations. Mr. Mechanic formerly was a Senior Healthcare Analyst with Forrester Research, a technology and business strategy research firm, where he analyzed the use of information technology and the Internet to improve healthcare business processes and clinical quality. From 1998 to 2000, he was Senior Vice President with the Massachusetts Hospital Association (MHA) where he was responsible for healthcare finance, policy and research. From 1988 to 1998, Mr. Mechanic was a consultant and Vice President with the Lewin Group, a Washington D.C.-based healthcare consulting firm where his practice focused on hospital finance, state health policy, and healthcare reform. Mr. Mechanic's work has been published in professional journals such as JAMA, Health Affairs, Business and Health, and Benefits Quarterly. Mr. Mechanic earned an MBA in finance from The Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania and a BS in economics with distinction from the University of Wisconsin.

Degrees

The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania
M.B.A.

University of Wisconsin, B.S.

Awards and Honors

  • Board of Directors, National Public Health and Hospital Institute 2000 - 2004
  • Alfred E. Buehler Fellowship (1987)