Taking the pulse of health care
fall 2013
Paul and Ellen Hughes-Cromwick with their children Carrie, Mac and Brian.
clark alumni magazine
32
Ellen Hughes met Paul Cromwick in the cafeteria at the University of Notre Dame where he was studying mathematics and philosophy while she completed a major in government. They were married on campus in the Sacred Heart Church in 1978, beginning a journey together that would include graduate study in economics at Clark, two demanding careers and three children. Attiat Ott, Clark research professor in economics, remembers Paul, who worked as her research assistant and earned his master's in 1989, as knowledgeable, organized, and “nothing short of remarkable.” “He epitomizes what one would describe as a caring, thoughtful and competent being,” she says. For Paul, a Worcester native who had never strayed farther west than Auburn, N.Y., or farther south than Connecticut, attending school in South Bend, Indiana, had been an adventure. Today, the scope of his work as a senior health economist at the Altarum Institute’s Center for Sustainable Health Spending encompasses the entire nation. In 2012, Paul launched Health Sector Economic Indicators, a product designed to track the U.S. health economy on a monthly basis. Each set of indicators, beginning in January 2012 (available online at altarum.org), consists of three briefs – one each on health care prices, spending, and labor. With a consistent, four-page format and an almost equal balance of text and graphs, each report is intentionally designed to make complex health economy trends accessible. At a time when controversy surrounding the cost of health care in general, and of President Obama’s Affordable Care Act in particular, seems to garner almost daily media attention, it’s surprising that such critical information was not already easily accessible to health-care policymakers. But after 20plus years’ experience as a health economist with organizations such as the Henry Ford Health System, the University of Pittsburgh Graduate School of Public Health, and the Connecticut Partnership for Long-Term Care Insurance, Paul saw a need and addressed it. “I think we’re the only group in the country that on a timely basis produces monthly briefs covering health spending, health prices and health employment for the nation,” he says. “Our goal is to continue producing a variant for free for the general public, co-brand it with a national group with some additional funding for special studies, and then have a third component that goes to the investment community.” In addition to developing and marketing Health Sector Economic Indicators, Paul also serves as the center’s outreach coordinator. He recently organized the third annual Altarum Center for Sustainable Health Spending Symposium, which took place July 30 in Washington, D.C. (Monographs, videos and PowerPoint presentations from the 2011, 2012 and 2013 symposia are available on the center’s website.) The symposium examined the relationship between the growth in health spending and the fiscal crisis, and convened some of the leading experts in national health care spending to discuss and dissect these issues. Paul notes that one of the biggest policy changes in U.S. history, the Affordable Care Act, is taking place alongside recovery from one of the country’s worst economic recessions. “That combination of events,” he says, “is such that understanding what is going on with the health sector is now the full-time job of many, many people.” He likes to point out to those looking to contain health care costs that, “Without what we’re doing, you won’t know if you’re succeeding or not.” Follow Paul on Twitter: @Altarum_CSHS -Anne Gibson