Thomas R. Oliver, Ph.D., M.H.A


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Visiting Associate Professor of Population Health Sciences

 

Phone: (608) 262-6731
Fax: (608) 262-6404
Email: troliver@wisc.edu
 

 

 

Tom Oliver is Visiting Associate Professor of Population Health Sciences at the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health.  He also serves as director of the Health Policy Program at the University of Wisconsin Population Health Institute.  Professor Oliver attended Stanford University and received his bachelor’s degree there in Human Biology.  He received a master’s degree in health administration from Duke University and received master’s and doctoral degrees in political science from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.  He completed a postdoctoral fellowship in the Pew Health Policy Program at the University of California, San Francisco. 

Professor Oliver’s published research includes articles in the New England Journal of Medicine, Political Science Quarterly, Stanford Law & Policy Review, Journal of Health Politics, Policy and Law, Health Affairs, Milbank Quarterly, Journal of Policy Analysis and Management, and Annual Review of Public Health.  Prior to coming to the University of Wisconsin, he held faculty positions at the University of Maryland Baltimore County and at Johns Hopkins University, where he is Adjunct Professor of Health Policy and Management.  He previously served as a member of the study panel on Medicare Management and Governance convened by the National Academy of Social Insurance.  He currently serves on the advisory panel on New Science and Technology for U.S. Pharmacopeia and on the technical advisory committee for the Maryland Citizens’ Health Initiative, a grass-roots coalition of over 1200 groups that seeks universal health insurance in the state of Maryland.
 

Research Interests

Professor Oliver's research draws upon theories of political behavior and policy making to examine critical issues in health care politics and system reform. It has two general goals. The first goal is to identify and assess the forces that bring about change in public policy and complex systems of health and social services. The second goal is to understand the substantive design of formal policies and, in particular, how issues of technical, economic, and political feasibility combine to shape initial proposals and final decisions.

Professor Oliver’s written work covers a number of areas in health policy, among them hospital financing and planning, technology assessment, the provision of dental services through HMOs, congressional policy making on health issues, and models of comprehensive health care reform in states and communities. His most recent work includes studies of state health insurance reforms; the evolution of Medicare policy; the role of policy entrepreneurs in the emergence of managed care and managed competition in the U.S. health care system; strategies used by foundations to influence health policy; and, more generally, the role of leadership in health policy innovation.
 

Professional Affiliations

American Political Science
AssociationAssociation for Public Policy Analysis and Management
Committee on Health Politics
AcademyHealth
 

Honors and Awards

Robert Wood Johnson Foundation—Investigator Award in Health Policy Research, 1993
 

Selected Publications

Oliver, Thomas R., Philip R. Lee, and Tanisha Cariño.  2007.  “Interests, Ideology, and Institutional Dynamics in the Creation of the Medicare Prescription Drug Benefit.”  In Diana Mason, Judy Leavitt, and Mary Chafee, eds.  Policy and Politics in Nursing and Health Care, 5th edition, W.B. Saunders/Elsevier, pp. 421-35.

Waters, Hugh, Laura Steinhardt, Thomas Oliver, Alice Burton, and Susan Milner.  2007.  “The Costs of Non-insurance in Maryland.”  Journal of Health Care for the Poor and Underserved 18 (1): 139-51.

Rutkow, Lainie, Brad Maggy, Joanna Zablotsky, and Thomas R. Oliver.  2007.  “Balancing Consumer and Industry Interests in Public Health: The National Vaccine Injury Compensation Program and Its Influence During the Last Two Decades.”  Penn State Law Review 111: 681-738.

Oliver, Thomas R. and Rachel Friedman Singer. 2006. “Health Services Research as a Source of Legislative Analysis and Input: The California Health Benefits Review Program.” Health Services Research 41 (June): 1124-58.

Lee, Philip R., Thomas R. Oliver, A.E. Benjamin, and Dorothy Lee. 2006. “Politics, Health Policy, and the American Character.” Stanford Law & Policy Review 17 (1) (April).

Oliver, Thomas R. 2006. “The Politics of Public Health Policy.” Annual Review of Public Health 27: 195-233.

Oliver, Thomas R. 2004. "Policy Entrepreneurship in the Social Transformation of American Medicine: The Rise of Managed Care and Managed Competition." Journal of Health Politics, Policy and Law 29 (August 2004): 701-33.

Oliver, Thomas R., Philip R. Lee, and Helene L. Lipton. 2004. "A History of Medicare and Prescription Drug Coverage." Milbank Quarterly 82 (June): 283-354.

Oliver, Thomas R. 2004. "Holding Back the Tide: Policies to Preserve and Reconstruct Health Insurance Coverage in Maryland." Journal of Health Politics, Policy and Law 29 (April): 203-36.

Dubay, Lisa, Christina Moylan, and Thomas R. Oliver. 2004. "Advancing Toward Universal Coverage: Are States Able to Take the Lead?" Journal of Health Care Law and Policy 7(1): 1-41.

Oliver, Thomas R. and Jason Gerson. 2003. The Role of Foundations in Shaping Health Policy: Lessons from Efforts to Expand and Protect Health Insurance Coverage. Los Angeles, CA: Center on Philanthropy and Public Policy, University of Southern California.

Oliver, Thomas R. 2001. "State Health Politics and Policy: Rhetoric, Reality, and the Challenges Ahead." In Robert B. Hackey and David A. Rochefort, eds. The New Politics of State Health Policy. Lawrence, KS: University Press of Kansas, pp. 273-91.

Shi, Leiyu, Thomas R. Oliver, and Virginia Huang. 2000. "The State Children's Health Insurance Program: Expanding the Framework for Evaluating State Goals and Performance." Milbank Quarterly 78 (3): 403-46.

Oliver, Thomas R. 1999. "The Dilemmas of Incrementalism: Logical and Political Constraints in the Design of Health Insurance Reforms." Journal of Policy Analysis and Management 18 (Fall): 652-83.

Oliver, Thomas R. 1998. "The Collision of Economics and Politics in Medicaid Managed Care: Reflections on the Course of Reform in Maryland." Milbank Quarterly 76 (1): 59-101.

Oliver, Thomas R. and Pamela Paul-Shaheen. 1997. "Translating Ideas into Actions: Entrepreneurial Leadership in State Health Care Reforms." Journal of Health Politics, Policy and Law 22 (June): 721-88.

Oliver, Thomas R. and Emery B. Dowell. 1994. "Interest Groups and Health Reform: Lessons from California." Health Affairs 13 (Spring II): 123-41.

Oliver, Thomas R. 1993. "Analysis, Advice, and Congressional Leadership: The Physician Payment Review Commission and the Politics of Medicare." Journal of Health Politics, Policy and Law 18 (Spring): 113-74.

Oliver, Thomas R. 1991. "Ideas, Entrepreneurship, and the Politics of Health Care Reform." Stanford Law & Policy Review 3 (Fall): 160-80.

Oliver, Thomas R. 1991. "Health Care Market Reform in Congress: The Uncertain Path from Proposal to Policy." Political Science Quarterly 106 (Fall): 453-77.
 

Teaching Experience

Undergraduate Courses
American Government
Health Politics and Policy
Public Policy Analysis
State and Local Politics

Graduate Courses
Doctoral Seminar in Health and Public Policy
The Role of Government in Health Policy
Current Issues in Medicare Policy
Current Issues in Medicaid, SCHIP, and State Health Coverage
Case Studies in Health Policy and Financing
The Political and Social Context of the Policy Process
Health Politics and Policy
Policy Implementation
Public Entrepreneurship and Policy Innovation
 

Contact Information:
Thomas R. Oliver, PhD., MHA
Department of Population Health Sciences
610 Walnut Street, Room 760 WARF
Madison, WI  53726-2397
Phone: 608-262-6731
Fax: 608-262-6404
Email: troliver@wisc.edu


Updated 11/7/07

 

 

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