Dr. Huskamp was a panelist for the Forum’s discussion on Living the Best Life Possible.
Haiden Huskamp’s primary areas of research are mental health and substance use disorder policy; prescription drug policy; and the financing and utilization of end-of-life care services.
Dr. Huskamp has assessed the effect of implementing comprehensive mental health parity (i.e., requiring plans to offer the same level of coverage for mental health and general medical services) in the Federal Employees Health Benefits Program on use of mental health services, total and out-of-pocket mental health spending, and the likelihood of receiving appropriate treatment. She currently serves as Principal Investigator for an R01 funded by the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) focused on factors that influence physician adoption and use of antipsychotic medications, and an R01 funded by the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) assessing the effects of new payment and delivery models on substance use disorder treatment. She recently served as Principal Investigator for an NIMH grant on the effect of mental health parity on individuals with severe mental illnesses and high mental health service costs. Dr. Huskamp has published numerous papers on the impact of managed care for mental health services on utilization patterns, costs and quality of care.
Dr. Huskamp has also developed a body of research on the impact of pharmacy management tools used to control prescription drug costs on drug utilization, cost, and quality of care. She has written numerous papers on the Medicare Part D drug benefit and its implications for vulnerable populations, including individuals with a mental illness and nursing home residents. She completed a Career Development Award from the National Institute of Mental Health focused on the economics of psychotropic medications. Through this award, she examined the impact of three-tier prescription drug formularies on cost and utilization patterns for drugs used to treat mental illness; the effect of generic entry of antidepressant medications on drug sales, market share, and advertising and promotional strategies of antidepressant manufacturers; and the implications of the Medicare Part D drug benefit for access to psychotropic medications, psychotropic drug pricing, and incentives for future psychotropic innovation. Through a Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Investigator Award in Health Policy Research, Dr. Huskamp examined the social costs and benefits of newer psychotropic drugs to assess their social value and identify ways that the value of psychotropic drug spending can be increased. She is Principal Investigator for an R01 funded by the National Institute on Aging (NIA) to assess the impact of Medicare Part D drug plan generosity on utilization, health outcomes, and functioning of elderly nursing home residents. Dr. Huskamp served as a member of the Institute of Medicine Committee on Accelerating Rare Diseases Research and Orphan Products Development.
Dr. Huskamp’s research on end of life care includes a study of the timing of discussions about hospice care that occur between physicians and patients with metastatic lung cancer conducted with funding provided by the National Cancer Institute and the Department of Veterans Affairs; a policy paper outlining an alternative structure for a Medicare end-of-life care benefit for nursing home residents; a study of patient and nursing home factors that contribute to earlier referrals to hospice among terminally-ill nursing home residents funded by the Charles H. Farnsworth Trust; and a study of patient-level variation in hospice costs funded by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality and the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation. She also served as a member of the Institute of Medicine Committee on Care for Children Who Die and Their Families.
