Lawton Burns

Education

PhD, University of Chicago, 1981; MBA, University of Chicago, 1984; MA, University of Chicago, 1976; BA, Haverford College, 1973

Recent Consulting

Analysis of the pharmaceutical outsourcing market, IMB, 200304; Antitrust implications of PHOs, Federal Trade Commission, 2004; Development of integrated delivery systems, Illinois Hospital Association, 199497

Career and Recent Professional Awards; Teaching Awards

2003: Board of Institute of Medicine, Health Services Research Section; 2001: Arthur Anderson Distinguished Visitor, University of Cambridge (UK); 1999:Teacher of the Year, Administrative Medicine Program, School of Medicine, University of Wisconsin; 199293: Edwin Crosby Memorial Fellowship, Hospital Research and Educational Trust; 199091: Udall Fellowship, Udall Center for Public Policy; 1997: Invited Lecture Series, Catholic University of Rome, Luiss, and National Agency for Health Care Services (Rome)

Academic Positions Held

Wharton: 1994present (Chairperson, Health Care Systems Department, 2008present; named James JooJin Kim Professor, 1999; Director, Wharton Center for Health Management and Economics, 1999present). Previous appointments: University of Arizona; University of Chicago. Visiting appointment: University of Wisconsin

Professional Leadership 20052009

Editorial Board, Health Services Research, 1994present

Biosketch

Lawton Robert Burns, Ph.D., MBA, is the Chair of the Health Care Management Department, the James JooJin Kim Professor, a Professor of Health Care Management, and a Professor of Management in the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania. He is also Director of the Wharton Center for Health Management & Economics, and CoDirector of the Roy & Diana Vagelos Program in Life Sciences and Management.  He received his doctorate in Sociology and his MBA in Health Administration from the University of Chicago. Dr. Burns taught previously in the Graduate School of Business at the University of Chicago and the College of Business Administration at the University of Arizona.

Dr. Burns has analyzed physicianhospital integration over the past 25 years. In recognition of this research, Dr. Burns was named the Edwin L. Crosby Memorial Fellow by the Hospital Research and Educational Trust in 1992. Dr. Burns has also published several papers on hospital systems and physician group practices. The last 13 years he spent studying the healthcare supply chain. He completed a book on supply chain management in the healthcare industry, The Health Care Value Chain (JosseyBass, 2002), and a recent analysis of alliances between imaging equipment makers and hospital systems. These studies focus on the strategic alliances and partnerships developing between pharmaceutical firms/distributors, disposable manufacturers, medical device manufacturers, group purchasing organizations, and organized delivery systems.  He has also edited The Business of Healthcare Innovation (Cambridge University Press, 2012) which analyzes the healthcare technology sectors globally: pharmaceuticals, biotechnology, medical devices, and information technology. Most recently, he has served as lead editor of the 6th Edition of the major text, Healthcare Management: Organization Design & Behavior (Delmar, 2011). His latest book, India’s Healthcare Industry, was just published in 2014 (Cambridge University Press, 2014).

Dr. Burns teaches courses on healthcare strategy, strategic change, strategic implementation, organization and management, managed care, and integrated delivery networks. From 19982002, he was a Visiting Professor in the Department of Preventive Medicine at the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine, where he taught corporate strategy to physicians. Dr. Burns also received an Investigator Award from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation to study the reasons for failure in organizational change efforts by healthcare providers. He is a past member of the Grant Review Study Section for the Agency for Health Care Policy & Research, and a past board member of the Health Services Section of the Institute of Medicine. He is also a Life Fellow of Clare Hall at the University of Cambridge.

 

Assessment of GPOs: The National Survey of Materials Management & Purchasing Executives Offical Rules

Jeff C. Goldsmith, Lawton R. Burns, Aditi Sen, Trevor Goldsmith Integrated Delivery Networks: In Search of Benefits and Market Effects.

Guy David, Rich Lindrooth, Lorens Helmchen, Lawton R. Burns (2014), Do Hospitals Cross Subsidize? , Journal of Health Economics.

Aditi Sen, Lawton R. Burns, Michael Dandorph, Suzanne Sawyer (Draft), Physician Referral and the Potential for ACOs in Philadelphia.

Abstract: Implementation of the Affordable Care Act has farreaching implications for the U.S. health care delivery system. In particular, achieving the type of integrated patient care that health care reform calls for (e.g., through “accountable care organizations” or ACOs) will require major organizational changes to the health delivery system. Despite increased focus on ACOs, little is known about how these changes will be carried out, particularly in complex urban settings where there are numerous providers and payers and longstanding networks already in place. We provide the first marketwide analysis of the potential for ACO development in this type of market. We focus on primary care physician referrals to specialists, which will play a key role in coordination of care through ACOs and will likely have to be adapted to meet quality and cost objectives. We find that physicians base referrals largely on experience and personal ties and that it would take sizable incentives (1015% of reimbursement) for physicians to change practices. Across the market, we find that though there is uncertainty about ACO implementation, stakeholders anticipate changes in provider relationships, reimbursement, and data capacity.

Lawton R. Burns, “India’s Healthcare Industry: A System Perspective”. In India's Healthcare Industry: Innovation in Delivery, Financing, and Manufacturing, edited by Lawton R. Burns, (2014),

Abstract: To request a copy of this article, contact Professor Burns at burnsl@wharton.upenn.edu. 

Lawton R. Burns, “India’s Healthcare Industry: An Overview of the Value Chain”. In India's Healthcare Industry: Innovation in Delivery, Financing, and Manufacturing, edited by Lawton R. Burns, (2014),

Abstract: To request a copy of this article, contact Professor Burns at burnsl@wharton.upenn.edu. 

Lawton R. Burns, Mandar Vayda, Bhuvan Srinivasan, “India’s Hospital Sector: The Journey from Public to Private Healthcare Delivery”. In India's Healthcare Industry: Innovation in Delivery, Financing, and Manufacturing, edited by Lawton R. Burns, (2014),

Abstract: To request a copy of this article, contact Professor Burns at burnsl@wharton.upenn.edu. 

Lawton R. Burns, Richa Bansal, Prashanth Jayaram, “Medical Tourism: Opportunities and Challenges”. In India's Healthcare Industry: Innovation in Delivery, Financing, and Manufacturing, edited by Lawton R. Burns, (2014),

Abstract: To request a copy of this article, contact Professor Burns at burnsl@wharton.upenn.edu. 

Lawton R. Burns, Ravi Shah, R. Carter Clement, Arunavo Roy, James Calderwood, “The Aravind Eye Care System”. In India's Healthcare Industry: Innovation in Delivery, Financing, and Manufacturing, edited by Lawton R. Burns, (2014),

Abstract: To request a copy of this article, contact Professor Burns at burnsl@wharton.upenn.edu. 

Lawton R. Burns, India's Healthcare Industry: Innovation in Delivery, Financing, and Manufacturing (2014)

Abstract: This book analyzes the historical development and current state of India's healthcare industry. It describes three sets of institutions that deliver healthcare services, finance these services, and manufacture products used in these services. These institutions provide healthcare (hospitals, physicians, pharmacies, and diagnostic laboratories), pay for healthcare (individuals who pay outofpocket, insurance companies, community insurance schemes, government ministries) and produce the technology used in healthcare delivery (pharmaceuticals, biotechnology, and medical devices). The volume also discusses innovative efforts to raise capital for the development of these sectors. Finally, it includes three interesting case studies of innovative models of healthcare delivery (L. V. Prasad, Aravind, and Vaatsalya), as well as analyses of other innovative organizations like Narayana Hrudaylaya and the hospital chains. The contributors to the volume include Wharton faculty members, graduates of Wharton's healthcare MBA program, and executives and consultants from India.

Aditi Sen, Jessica Pickett, Lawton R. Burns, “The Health Insurance Sector in India: History and Opportunities”. In India's Healthcare Industry: Innovation in Delivery, Financing, and Manufacturing, edited by Lawton R. Burns, (2014), pp. 361400

Abstract: To request a copy of this article, contact Professor Burns at burnsl@wharton.upenn.edu. 

Past Courses

HCMG101 HEALTH CARE SYSTEMS

This introductory course takes a policy and politics angle to health care's three persistent issues access, cost and quality. The roles of patients, physicians, hospitals, insurers, and pharmaceutical companies will be established. The interaction between the government and these different groups will also be covered. Current national health care policy initiatives and the interests of class members will steer the specific topics covered in the course. The course aims to provide skills for critical and analytical thought about the U.S. health care system and the people in it.

HCMG213 HC MGMT&STRAT

This course presents an overview of the business of health and how a variety of health care organizations have gained, sustained, and lost competitive advantage amidst intense competition, widespread regulation, high interdependence, and massive technological, economic, social and political changes. Specifically, we evaluate the challenges facing health care organizations using competitive analysis, identify their past responses, and explore the current strategies they are using to manage these challenges (and emerging ones) more effectively. Students will develop generalized skills in competitive analysis and the ability to apply those skills in the specialized analysis of opportunities in producer (e.g. biopharmaceutical, medical product, information technology), purchaser (e.g. insurance), and provider (e.g. hospitals, nursing homes, physician) organizations and industry sectors. The course is organized around a number of readings, cases, presentations, and a required project.

HCMG841 HEALTH SERVICES SYS

This course provides an overview of the evolution, structure and current issues in the health care system. It examines the unique features of health care as a product, and the changing relationships between patients, physicians, hospitals, insurers, employers, communities, and government. The course examines three broad segments of the health care industry: payors, providers and suppliers. Within the payor segment, the course examines the sources and destinations of spending, managed care (HMOs, PPOs),employer based health insurance, technology assessment, payor strategy, and efforts to pay for the elderly, the poor & the medically indigent. Within the provider segment, the course examines the impact of cost containment and competition on hospitals and integrated delivery systems, long term care and disease management, and the important role of epidemiology in assessing population health needs and risks. Within the supplier segment, the course will examine developments in the biotechnology, pharmaceutical, medical devices, genomics and IT industries. NOTE: This is a required course for Wharton Graduate Health Care Management majors; it counts as an elective course for all other Wharton Graduate students. It is also open to Law School and Nursing School students with a joint Wharton Program.

HCMG845 MANAGED CARE & INTEG HC

This course, cotaught with Brad Fluegel (former Executive VP of Wellpoint, Inc and current Chief Strategy Officer at Walgreens) will focus on two interrelated topics: managed care and market structure. The section on managed care will cover strategic planning and marketing of managed care services, operational issues in developing a managed care network, actuarial issues, and the management of physician behavior. The section on health care market structure will analyze strategies of vertical integration and horizontal integration (M+As), and their attempt to alter the balance of power in local healthcare markets. The section will also analyze the operational issues in managing cost and quality in an integrated system, integration along the supply chain, and the performance of these systems, and the bargaining and negotiation between hospitals, physicians, and health plans.

HCMG900 PROSEMINAR IN HSR

This seminar will explore empirical methods in health care research with an emphasis on applications in health care economics and finance. The methods covered include estimation with panel data, program evaluation models, qualitative and limited dependent variable models, stochastic frontier models, estimation with count data, and duration models. The readings consist of a blend of classic and recent empirical studies, including articles on the demand for health care and health insurance, tests for moral hazard and adverse selection, and estimation of provider cost functions. Students are required to conduct an econometric analysis of some issue within the health care field. With the permission of the instructor, the seminar is open to doctoral students from departments other than Health Care Systems.

MGMT773 MANAGING ORG CHANGE

During the last decade it has become clear that in the global economy, firms must constantly adapt to changing technological, competitive, demographic and other environmental conditions in order to survive and prosper. The importance of acquiring the knowledge and tools for changing organizations successfully cannot be overemphasized (particularly for students headed for consulting and general management careers, although not limited to them). This course focuses on specific concepts, theories and tools that can guide executives entrusted with the task of leading organizational change to successful execution. Among other topics, the course will focus on various change strategies such as leading change, managing cultural change, and mergersor acquisitions, corporate transformation, managing growth, building the customer centric organization, business process outsourcing both from client and provider perspectives, and managing radical organizational change. The perspective of the course is integrative and the focus is on successful execution.

MGMT782 STRATEGIC IMPLEMENTATION

This course is directed toward the attainment of five interdependent objectives 1) to develop an understanding of strategy implementation in complex organizations; 2) to understand how organizational planning, design, control and human resource decisions are interdependent and critical to successful implementation; 3) to develop a sensitivity to the "realities" of strategy implementation in "real world" organizations; 4) to obtain a deeper understanding of your personal management style and how it may help or hinder strategy implementation; and 5) to become a better communicator and implementer of strategy. To meet these course objectives, the emphasis will be on learning powerful ideas about how to be systematic in strategy implementation efforts, making use of research about case problems, class discussions, in class exercises, and student presentations. Much of the learning will take place in group discussions outside the classroom in preparation for the time we meet in the classroom.

Inside China’s Health Care Reform Effort, LDI News 02/24/2017 Description

Inside China’s Health Care Reform Effort

Wharton Professor’s Book Takes a Deep Dive in a Very Complicated Market

Knowledge @ Wharton

• The Iron Triangle and China’s Health Care Dilemma, Knowledge @ Wharton 03/16/2017
• Hospital Consolidation: Can It Work This Time?, Knowledge @ Wharton 05/11/2015
• Innovation and the Three “P’s”: A 360degree View of Indian Health Care, Knowledge @ Wharton 07/11/2014
• Health Care in China: Is There a Doctor in the House?, Knowledge @ Wharton 06/26/2013
• ‘Ticking Time Bombs’: China’s Health Care System Faces Issues of Access, Quality and Cost, Knowledge @ Wharton 06/26/2013
• Nurse Practitioners Are In — and Why You May Be Seeing More of Them, Knowledge @ Wharton 02/13/2013
• ‘Multitasking Writ Large’: Is American Health Care Reform a Prescription for Trouble?, Knowledge @ Wharton 12/19/2012
• ‘Multitasking Writ Large’: Is Health Care Reform a Prescription for Trouble?, Knowledge @ Wharton 12/05/2012
• China’s Health Care System and Reform: Reinforcing the ‘Iron Triangle’, Knowledge @ Wharton 09/11/2012
• Prescription for Global Pharma Firms: Search for More Opportunity in China, Knowledge @ Wharton 08/01/2012
• Research Roundup: Cross Subsidization at Hospitals, Building Better Teams and the Alcohol Bias, Knowledge @ Wharton 07/18/2012
• Medical Devices, Ethics and Money, Knowledge @ Wharton 06/25/2012
• Mystery Diagnosis: An Era of Uncertainty for the Health Care Sector, Knowledge @ Wharton 09/14/2011
• Compassion vs. Cost: Improving the Prognosis for India’s Health Care Sector, Knowledge @ Wharton 02/11/2010
• The Road to China: Fresh Insights into the World’s Fastestgrowing Economy, Knowledge @ Wharton 12/09/2009
• Information Technology: Not a Cure for the High Cost of Health Care, Knowledge @ Wharton 06/10/2009
• Podcast: Lawton Burns on the Critical, and Costly, Role of Companies that Make Healthcarerelated Products, Knowledge @ Wharton 05/17/2006
• The Business of Healthcare Innovation: How New Products Come to Market, Knowledge @ Wharton 05/03/2006
• Why Bush and Kerry are Wrong on Health Care, Knowledge @ Wharton 10/19/2004
• Employers Step up Enlistment of Employees in Battle against Health Care Costs, Knowledge @ Wharton 07/28/2004
• Can Aventis Fight Off Its Hostile Suitor?, Knowledge @ Wharton 02/25/2004
• From Skin Creams to Life Insurance to Medical Care, Biosciences Are the New Frontier of Business Opportunity, Knowledge @ Wharton 02/27/2002
• Prescription Drug Coverage for Seniors Faces Uncertain Future, Knowledge @ Wharton 10/10/2001
• The Patient Died: A Postmortem on America’s Largest Nonprofit Health Care Failure, Knowledge @ Wharton 01/20/2000
• Can Opposites Attract?, Knowledge @ Wharton 08/04/1999