Cameron Kaplan, PhD

What does Cameron Kaplan study?

I am a health economist, and my research asks how the design of health insurance affects whether people can actually get and afford care. That work spans Medicare prescription drug benefit design and the Part D coverage gap, state regulation of Medigap supplemental coverage, Medicaid and Medi-Cal enrollment and cost sharing, ACA marketplace premium subsidies and tobacco surcharges, and access to primary and preventive care in safety-net health systems.

A recurring theme across all of it: coverage on paper does not guarantee access in practice, and the details of benefit design usually determine who gets left out.

What data and methods do you use?

Mostly large administrative and claims datasets, including Medicare claims, all-payer claims databases, California Health Care Payments Data, electronic health record data from safety-net systems, and national survey data such as the Current Population Survey.

Methodologically I work in applied microeconometrics and quasi-experimental policy evaluation: difference-in-differences designs, instrumental variables, and cost-effectiveness analysis. Most of my identification strategies exploit either variation in state policy or discrete changes in federal benefit rules.

What is the Gehr Family Center for Health Systems Science and Innovation?

It is a research center at the Keck School of Medicine of USC that I have directed since 2023. The center builds the evidence base for equitable access to high-quality health care, applying health economics, policy, and access research to real delivery systems. Its established strength is in safety-net settings, including Los Angeles County health services, federally qualified health centers, and Medicaid managed care.

The center also runs an annual summer research program that places students with faculty mentors alongside six weeks of intensive research training.

What are you working on now?

My current NIH-funded work is an NIMHD U01, for which I am principal investigator, examining how COVID-19 mitigation efforts affected access to routine preventive care and chronic disease management in safety-net settings.

I am also involved in ongoing collaborative work on opioid exposure and outcomes among hospitalized infants, and on medication adherence and care transitions in low-income populations. Beyond currently funded projects, my continuing research interests include the regulation of Medicare supplemental coverage and the effects of coverage transitions in Medicaid.

Are you available for collaboration, expert commentary, or consulting?

Yes. I welcome research collaboration, and I am glad to hear from journalists and policy organizations working on health insurance design, Medicare and Medicaid policy, prescription drug coverage, and access to care in safety-net systems.

The best way to reach me is [email protected].

Where can I find your full publication list and CV?

A complete list of my 51 peer-reviewed publications is on Google Scholar and in my ORCID record (0000-0001-6430-6816). My current CV is available here as a PDF.