Faculty Profile

Bill Thomas is Professor Emeritus of Health Management and Policy, as well as Professor of Health Policy and Management at the University of Southern Maine in Portland. His research has focused primarily on measuring performance of health care providers in terms of efficiency and quality of care. During the 1980s and early 1990s, his work focused on hospital inpatient care. More recently, Dr. Thomas has examined methodologies used in the economic profiling of physicians. In 2002, he completed an evaluation of risk adjustment methods used in the economic profiling of primary care physicians. In 2004, he finished a study that focused on methodological issues associated with economic profiling of specialist physicians, including minimum sample sizes needed for reliable profiles, rules for attributing responsibility for episodes of care to individual physicians, and methods for dealing with cost outlier episodes. Currently, he is working with the RAND Corporation on a study investigating relationships between measures of physicians' quality of care performance and practice efficiency performance. He also is working with colleagues at the University of Southern Maine on a Robert Wood Johnson Foundation grant examining issues associated with use of tiered provider networks by health plans.

• PhD, Managerial Science and Applied Economics, Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania, 1977

• , Master of Business Administration, Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania, 1971

• , Bachelor of Mechanical Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology, 1965

• Use of Tiered Networks by Employer Sponsored Health Plans
  Sponsor: Robert Wood Johnson Foundation under the Health Care Organization and Financing Program
  
  

• Thomas, J.W., Grazier, K.W., and Ward, K. (2004). Comparing accuracy of risk adjustment methodologies used in economic profiling of physicians. Inquiry 218-231.

• Thomas, J.W., Grazier, K.W., and Ward, K. (2004). Economic profiling of primary care physicians: consistency among risk-adjusted measures. Health Services Research 985-1003.

• Thomas, J.W. and Hofer, T.P. (1999). Accuracy of risk-adjusted mortality rate as a measure of hospital quality of care. Medical Care 83-92.

• Thomas, J.W., Bates, E.W., Hofer, T.P., et al. (1998). Interpreting risk-adjusted length of stay for VA hospitals. Medical Care 1660-1675.

• Thomas, J.W. and Hofer, T.P. (1998). Research evidence of the validity of risk-adjusted mortality rate as a measure of hospital quality of care. Medical Care Research and Review 371-404.