Dr. Risha Gidwani is an Associate Professor in the Division of Health Care Policy and Research at the University of Colorado School of Medicine, an Adjunct Senior Researcher at RAND, and an Adjunct Associate Professor at the UCLA Fielding School of Public Health. Dr. Gidwani is a CHBRP Cost Lead.

Dr. Gidwani’s research examines how health insurance design and health policy affect health care utilization, quality of care, and costs, including patient financial burden. She has particular expertise in employer-sponsored health insurance and the effects of deductibles and cost-sharing on health care use and outcomes.

Her research spans commercial insurance, the Affordable Care Act, Medicare, Medicaid, and the Veterans Health Administration and draws on large national administrative and survey datasets. Her methodological expertise includes causal inference from observational data, cost analyses and simulation modeling. Her federally-funded research has addressed topics including chronic disease management, menopause, cancer, telehealth, hospital financial performance, and the value of health care.

Prior to joining the University of Colorado, Dr. Gidwani was a Senior Researcher at RAND and a health economist at the VA Health Economics Resource Center, in addition to holding academic appointments at  Stanford University School of Medicine. Dr. Gidwani received her DrPH in Health Services in 2009 from the UCLA Fielding School of Public Health.