Matthew L. Maciejewski, Ph.D.

Matthew L. Maciejewski, Ph.D., is an associate professor in the Department of Medicine at Duke University School of Medicine.  He serves as a core investigator in the Center for Health Services Research in Primary Care at the Durham VA Medical Center and holds adjunct appointments in the Schools of Public Health and Pharmacy at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.  He received his BSFS from Georgetown University and his Ph.D. from the University of Minnesota.

Dr. Maciejewski’s research interests include the evaluation of interventions to improve management of diabetes and hypertension, health and economic outcomes of surgical and behavioral weight loss, and the impact of cost-sharing changes on demand for medications and health care services.  In addition to his current HCFO funding, Dr. Maciejewski served as a co-investigator on a RWJ HCFO-funded study that examined the impact of increasing Medicare managed care market share on provision of preventive services and high cost services to Medicare FFS beneficiaries with diabetes.  He is also conducting the economic evaluation of a cardiovascular disease self-management intervention for African-Americans with diabetes and hypertension, which is funded by the RWJF Finding Answers: Disparities Research for Change program.  In addition, Dr. Maciejewski has received funding from VA HSR&D, CMS, and AHRQ.  His work has been featured in numerous peer-reviewed publications such as JAMA, Archives of Internal Medicine, Health Services Research, Health Economics, and Medical Care.  He recently received the Research Career Scientist Award from VA HSR&D.

Dr. Maciejewski is the principal investigator on a current HCFO grant that is exploring the business case for value-based insurance design (VBID).  He and his team are examining “Medication Dedication,” a program of BlueCross BlueShield of North Carolina (BCBSNC) that eliminated copayments for generic medications and reduced co-payments for brand-name medications to treat hypertension, diabetes, congestive heart failure, and hyperlipidemia.  The goal of the project is to determine if the program improved medication utilization and adherence among participants during the first two years of enrollment.  The team will also analyze whether the medication copayment reductions impacted utilization and expenditures for outpatient and inpatient services.  Dr. Maciejewski states, “VBID is a compelling concept, but the challenge is determining how to most efficiently and effectively restructure health benefits.  If VBID motivates patients with chronic conditions to take their medications and reduces health care expenditures, it would represent an important step forward in health insurance benefit design.”