Prof. Fiona Scott Morton and Nathan Shekita ’20 Honored for Research on Surprise Healthcare Billing
Professor Fiona Scott Morton and Nathan Shekita ’20 won the 2021 National Institute for Health Care Management Research Award for their paper “Surprise! Out-of-Network Billing for Emergency Care in the United States.”
Professor Fiona Scott Morton, Professor Zack Cooper of the Yale School of Public Health, and Nathan Shekita ’20 are the winners of the 2021 National Institute for Health Care Management Research Award for their paper “Surprise! Out-of-Network Billing for Emergency Care in the United States,” the NIHCM announced this week.
The annual awards “recognize the tremendous contributions of researchers and journalists who brought to light new evidence that advances the health system and the health of Americans.”
Scott Morton, Cooper, and Shekita’s research showed that more than 20% of visits to the emergency departments at in-network hospitals include treatment by out-of-network physicians and unexpected bills totaling billions of dollars. Their research helped lead to federal legislation banning the practice.
Scott Morton is the Theodore Nierenberg Professor of Economics at Yale SOM. Cooper is associate professor of health policy and of economics at the Yale School of Public Health and director of health policy at the Yale Institution for Social and Policy Studies. Shekita, a joint-degree graduate of Yale SOM and the Yale School of Public Health, served as research assistant for Scott Morton and Cooper while a student. He is now an economic consultant at Analysis Group.