Paul Ginsburg, Ph.D. is Norman Topping Chair in Medicine and Public Policy at the University of Southern California. Continuing to be based in the Washington, DC area, he teaches graduate health administration courses and conducts health policy research. From 1995 through the end of 2013 he was President of the Center for Studying Health System Change (HSC). Founded with core support from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, HSC conducted research to inform policymakers and other audiences about changes in organization, financing and delivery of care and their effects on people. HSC was widely known for the objectivity and technical quality of its research and its success in communicating it to policy makers, industry and the media as well as to the research community. It enjoys particular respect for its knowledge of developments in communities and health care markets.

Prior to his founding HSC, Ginsburg served as the founding Executive Director of the Physician Payment Review Commission (now the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission). Widely regarded as highly influential, the Commission developed the Medicare physician payment reform proposal that was enacted by the Congress in 1989. Ginsburg was a Senior Economist at RAND and served as Deputy Assistant Director at the Congressional Budget Office (CBO). Before that, he served on the faculties of Duke and Michigan State Universities. He earned his doctorate in economics from Harvard University.

Ginsburg is a noted speaker and consultant on the changes in the financing and delivery of health care, particularly on the evolution of health care markets. In addition to presentations on the overall direction of change, recent topics have included cost trends and drivers, consumer driven health care, provider payment reform, future of employer-based health insurance and competition in health care. As a consultant to the Bipartisan Policy Center, he has contributed to reports on reducing federal spending on health care (2010) and on a strategy to contain health care costs (2013). He has been named to Modern Healthcare’s “100 Most Influential Persons in Health Care” eight times. He received the first annual HSR Impact Award from AcademyHealth. He is a founding member of the National Academy of Social Insurance, a Public Trustee of the American Academy of Ophthalmology, served two elected terms on the Board of AcademyHealth, served on CBO’s Panel of Health Advisors and serves on Health Affairs’ editorial board.