Thomas H. Rice Ph.D.
Distinguished Professor
Department of Health Services
University of California, Los Angeles
Email: trice@ucla.edu
Discipline: Economics, Health Services Research
Expertise: Insurance, Consumerism, Health Economics
Investigator Award 
Manacled Competition: Limiting Health Insurance ChoicesAward Year: 2005 With all the new options now available to Medicare recipients, both seniors and policymakers are asking a relatively simple question: is "more" the same as "better"? Are the many choices producing better health care decisions, or do they so confound seniors that they are more likely to make bad decisions that hurt their quality of care? Co-investigators Thomas H. Rice, Ph.D. and Yaniv Hanoch, Ph.D. are studying the decision process employed by the elderly as they grapple with the multitude of options available under the new Medicare prescription drug benefit and managed care plans. Manacled Competition: Limiting Health Insurance Choices for the Elderly is an effort to understand whether more choice will boost enrollment in Medicare drug plans and managed care, or whether better choices are made when there are fewer options available. Drs. Rice and Hanoch consider how age-related cognitive changes, number of choices, and different types of information affect decision-making. Their work should guide efforts aimed at helping seniors make better use of their coverage options under Medicare.
Background 
Thomas Rice is a distinguished professor in the department of health services in the UCLA School of Public Health. He served as department chair from 1996-2000 and 2003-4. He served as Vice Chancellor, Academic Personnel for the UCLA campus from 2006-11. Dr. Rice received his doctorate in economics at the University of California at Berkeley in 1982. Prior to joining the faculty at UCLA in 1991, he was a faculty member at the University of North Carolina School of Public Health. His areas of interest include health insurance, cost containment, Medicare, and the role of competition and regulation in health care markets. From 1994 to 2000, Dr. Rice served as the editor of the journal, Medical Care Research and Review. The second edition of his book, The Economics of Health Reconsidered, was published by Health Administration Press in 2003. He is a past chair of the board of directors of AcademyHealth, which represents the profession of health services research in the U.S. Dr. Rice was chair of the 2003 AcademyHealth Annual Research Meeting. Previously he was a recipient of its Young Investigator Award (1988) and Article-of-the-Year Award (1998).
- Hanoch, Y., Rice, T. The Economics of Choice: Lessons from the U.S. Health Care Market. Health Expectations, Mar 2011, 14(1): 105-12.
- Rice, T. Lessons from Across the Pond. Modern Healthcare, Sep 13 2010. http://www.modernhealthcare.com/article/20100913/MAGAZINE/309139999
- Rice, T., Cummings, J. Reducing the Number of Drug Plans for Seniors: A Proposal and Analysis of Three Case Studies. JHPPL, Dec 2010, 35(6): 961-97.
- Rice, T., Hanoch, Y. What Factors Influence Seniors' Desire for Choice among Health Insurance Options? Survey Results on the Medicare Prescription Drug Benefit. Health Economics, Policy and Law, Oct 2010, 5(4): 437-57.
- Tanius, B.E., Wood, S., Hanoch, Y., Rice, T. Aging and Choice: Applications to Medicare Part D. Judgment and Decision Making, Feb 2009, 4(1): 92-101.
- Hanoch, Y., Rice, T., Cummings, J., Wood, S. How Much Choice Is Too Much? The Case of the Medicare Prescription Drug Benefit. Health Services Research, 2009, 44(4): 1157-68.
- Cummings, J.R., Rice, T., Hanoch, Y. Who Thinks that Part D is Too Complicated? Survey Results on the Medicare Prescription Drug Benefit. Medical Care Research and Review, Feb 2009, 66(1): 97-115.
- Rice, T., Hanoch, Y. Can Consumers Have Too Much Choice? Expert Review of Pharmacoeconomics & Outcomes Research, Aug 2008, 8(4): 3256-7.
- Hanoch, Y., Rice, T. Can Limiting Choice Increase Social Welfare? The Elderly and Health Insurance. Milbank Quarterly, 2006, 84(1): 37-73.