About: Gary Ko
Gary K. Ko, CFA, is a Health Policy Research Fellow for The Source on Healthcare Price and Competition. His current research focuses on price transparency and competition within the U.S. healthcare system, with emphasis on economic incentives of stakeholders. He also headlines the column “Wall Street Perspective” on The Source Blog. Additionally, he is President of California Medical Billing Advocates (www.calmba.org), a non-profit organization that aims to reduce or eliminate unjust medical bills before they become crippling debt. Prior to joining The Source, Gary spent nearly 20 years at Franklin Templeton Investments as Vice President/Equity Research Analyst and managed up to $130 billion in assets. During his career, he has founded two for-profit companies and specialized in analyzing healthcare equities, including publicly traded managed care organizations, healthcare supply chain (distributors, PBMs, pharmacies), hospitals and post acute facilities, mental health facilities, staffing companies, contract research organizations, contract development and manufacturing organizations, clinical laboratories, healthcare IT, and life sciences tools. He also analyzed and valued numerous mid to late stage private healthcare companies. Gary is a CFA charter holder and holds a M.S. in Health Policy and Law from UCSF / UC Hastings, and a B.A. in Molecular Cell Biology and Economics from UC Berkeley.Are Medicaid Health Plans Making Too Much Money?
Gary Ko August 9, 2019
Medicaid health plans are often criticized for making too much money at the expense of tax payers and the indigent population, measured in billions of dollars. However, real profitability goes far beyond the simple measure of profit dollars. This post explores the profitability of Medicaid health plans from a corporate finance point of view, how the levels have changed over the years, and how they compare in today’s corporate context. Beyond Profit Dollars: Evaluating Profitability on Operating Margin The public often focus on absolute profit dollars as a measure …
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The Drug Rebate Rule Would Have Fixed Misaligned Incentives and Should Not Have Been Dropped
Gary Ko July 26, 2019
Early this month, the Trump administration withdrew the proposed Drug Rebate “Safe Harbor” Rule. Under the proposed rule, rebates currently paid by pharmaceutical companies to pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs) and payers would instead be passed directly to consumers. The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) estimated that the rule would cost the federal government $177 billion over 10 years. According to news sources, the administration decided to withdraw the rule due to concerns over cost, as well as potential windfall profits to the pharmaceutical industry. This outcome is unfortunate, as the current …
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From Wall Street to Academia
Gary Ko July 25, 2019
“Wall Street Perspective” is an op-ed column which provides economic perspectives on issues facing the U.S. health care system. This column serves as a public forum for general discussion of health system reform and invites our readers to share their opinions and thoughts, particularly on topics of healthcare economics and corporate finance. “They always say time changes things, but you actually have to change them yourself.” – Andy Warhol I still vividly remember the night when the idea of actively affecting change in healthcare first struck me. November 8th, 2016, election night. …
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