Gerald Kominski is a Professor of Health Policy and Management and a Senior Fellow at the UCLA Center for Health Policy Research. His research focuses on evaluating the costs and financing of public insurance programs, including Medicare, Medicaid, Workers’ Compensation. He is also working extensively on evaluating the expected and actual impacts of health care reform and has co-led the development of a microsimulation model (CalSIM) for forecasting eligibility, enrollment, and expenditures under health reform. He currently serves as PI of several multi-year evaluations of Medicaid 1115 waiver demonstration projects in California involving disease management for fee-for-service Medi-Cal beneficiaries and expansion of coverage for low-income uninsured adults otherwise ineligible for Medi-Cal through county-based indigent care programs. From 2003-2009, he served as Vice Chair for the Cost Impact Analysis Team of the California Health Benefits Review Program (CHBRP), which conducts legislative analyses for the California legislature of proposals to expand mandated insurance benefits. From 2001-2008, he was Associate Dean for Academic Programs at the UCLA School of Public Health.

Dr. Kominski received his Ph.D. in public policy analysis from the University of Pennsylvania Wharton School in 1985, and his A.B. from the University of Chicago in 1978. Prior to joining the faculty at UCLA in 1989, he served for three and a half years as a staff member of the agency now known as the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission (MedPAC). He is co-author of over 120 articles and reports, and is editor of the widely used textbook, Changing the U.S. Health Care System:  Key Issues in Health Services Policy and Management, which will be published in its 4th edition in 2014.

Selected Publications:

Kominski GF (ed.). Changing the U.S. Health Care System: Key Issues in Health Services Policy and Management, 4th Edition, San Francisco: Wiley and Sons, 2014.

Roby DH, Jacobs K, Kertzner AE, Kominski GF. California health policy research program - supporting policy making through evidence and responsive research. Journal of Health Politics, Policy, and Law 2014; 34(4):887-900.

Davis AC, Watson G, Pourat N, Kominski GF, Roby DH. Disparities in CD4 monitoring among HIV-positive Medicaid beneficiaries: Evidence of differential treatment at the point of care. Open Forum Infectious Diseases 2014;1(2):42.

Pourat N, Davis AC, Chen X, Vrungos S, Kominski GF. In California, primary care continuity was associated with reduced emergency department use and fewer hospitalizations. Health Affairs 2015;34(7):1113-1120.

Jones AL, Cochran SD, Leibowitz A, Wells KB, Kominski GF, Mays VM. Usual primary care provider characteristics of a patient-centered medical home and mental health service use. J Gen Intern Med 2015; 30(12):1828-1836.

Gans D, Hadler M, Chen X, Wu SH, Dimand R, Abramson JM, Diamant AL, Kominski GF. Impact of a pediatric palliative care program on the caregiver experience. Journal of Hospice and Palliative Nursing 2015;17(6):559-565.

Lucia L, Dietz M, Jacobs K, Chen X, Kominski GF. Which Californians will Lack Health Insurance under the Affordable Care Act?Berkeley, CA: UC Berkeley Center for Labor Research and Education and UCLA Center for Health Policy Research, January 2015.

Meng YY, Diamant A, Jones J, Lin W, Chen X, Wu SH, Pourat N, Roby D, Kominski GF. Racial and ethnic disparities in diabetes care and impact of vendor-based disease management programs. Diabetes Care 2016;39(5):743-749.

Gans D, Hadler MW, Chen X, Wu S, Dimand R, Abramson JM, Ferrell B, Diamant AL, Kominski GF. Cost analysis and policy implications of a pediatric palliative care program. Journal of Pain and Symptom Management 2016; 52(3):329-335.

Labovitz JM, Kominski GF. Forecasting the value of podiatric medical care in newly insured diabetic patients during implementation of the Affordable Care Act in California. Journal of the American Podiatric Medical Association 2016; 106( 3):163-171.

Sorenson A, Nonzee NJ, Kominski GF. Public Funds Account for Over 70 Percent of Health Care Spending in California. Los Angeles, CA: UCLA Center for Health Policy Research, August 2016.

Mager-Mardeusz H, Kominski GF. More than 400,000 Californians with Developmental Disabilities Remain Outside the State Safety Net. Los Angeles, CA: UCLA Center for Health Policy Research, November 2016.

Dietz M, Lucia L, Kominski GF, Jacobs K. ACA Repeal in California: Who Stands to Lose? Berkeley, CA: UC Berkeley Center for Labor Research and Education and UCLA Center for Health Policy Research, December 2016.

Kominski GF, Nonzee NJ, Sorensen A. The Affordable Care Act’s impacts on access to insurance and health care for low-income populations. Annual Review of Public Health 2017; 38:489–505.