Regina E. Herzlinger
Nancy R. McPherson Professor of Business Administration
Nancy R. McPherson Professor of Business Administration
Regina Herzlinger has been named the "Godmother of consumer-driven health care," because of her groundbreaking scholarly articles and books on this subject. She differed from conventional views of health care consumers, who were derogatorily described as non–compliant or patients. Instead, she portrayed them as busy people who are eager and capable of participating in managing their health, with appropriate, relevant, and respectful support.
Prof. Herzlinger named the consumer-driven health care movement. Her focus has supported the explosion of remote medical centers, wearables, implantable sensors, telehealth, urgent and emergent free-standing care facilities, and the intense interest in health savings and health reimbursement accounts. She anticipates future consumer-driven health plans and delivery systems focused on specific chronic diseases and disabilities.
She is also a teacher and scholar of innovation in health care. She highlights changes in insurance, focused health care delivery and insurance, medical technology, and transparency. Regi has taught thousands of Harvard students that only innovators can serve the ever-changing needs of health care consumers and how to make innovation happen through her popular HBS courses and HarvardX MOOC, Innovating in Health Care. Many of her students founded billion-dollar innovations and prominent non-profit firms and became leaders in major health corporations. Her forthcoming book Innovating in Healthcare (Wiley, 2020), contains the lessons of her courses.
She has been active in U.S. health care public policy. For example, her Wall Street Journal editorial "The IRS Can Save American Health Care," influenced an Executive Order: Promoting Healthcare Choice and Competition across the United States, finalized June 2019, and a Wall Street Journal editorial in October 2018 by three U.S. cabinet secretaries that cited her, "New Health Options for Small-Business Employees." Her 2020 Health Affairs article couples Biden/Trump proposals to create a bipartisan, cost–controlling solution to increasing coverage without raising taxes.
Prof. Herzlinger is also a successful medical technology entrepreneur with her husband, a Ph.D. Physicist. Their devices, which they design and manufacture in the U.S., have saved hundreds of thousands of lives. They are working on new ideas and have formed a charity to promulgate education in healthcare innovation.
Regina E. Herzlinger is the Nancy R. McPherson Professor of Business Administration at the Harvard Business School. She was the first woman to be tenured and chaired at Harvard Business School and serve on many established and start-up corporate health care/medical technology boards. She initiated the courses in non-profit and health care at HBS and was the first faculty member to be selected by the students as their best instructor. Her books include Best Sellers: Who Killed Health Care; Consumer-Driven Health Care; Market-Driven Health Care, and the anticipated December 2020 release Innovating in Healthcare: Creating Breakthrough Services, Products, and Business Models (Wiley).
- Featured Work
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In this white paper, based on a 2012 conference on health-care management education, you will hear diverse and sometimes discordant voices from all corners of health care management. Despite the range of opinions and many perspectives offered, all are motivated by real concern for the global state of health care and the imperative for change. The paper includes detailed recommendations for curricular content, pedagogical tools, professional values, and faculty career paths. If any group of scholars should believe in its ability to effect sweeping change, it is those of us in health care....
How can we reduce health care costs? In what way should health care be focused on outcomes? How should health insurance be reformed? What are some recent technological advances in health care? What are the benefits of the retail medical movement?
by Regina Herzlinger, May 2007In the battle for U.S. health care, patients and doctors are losing.
One of the nation's most respected health care analysts, Regina Herzlinger exposes the motives and methods of those who have crippled America's health care system-figures in the insurance, hospital, employment, governmental, and academic sectors. She proves how our current system, which is organized around payers and providers rather than the needs of its users, is dangerously eroding patient welfare and is pushing costs out of the reach of millions. - Books
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- Herzlinger, Regina E. Innovating in Health Care: A Toolkit for Entrepreneurs. Hoboken, NJ: Wiley, forthcoming. View Details
- Herzlinger, Regina. Who Killed Health Care? America's $2 Trillion Medical Problem—and the Consumer-Driven Cure. McGraw-Hill, 2007. View Details
- Herzlinger, Regina E. Consumer-Driven Health Care: Implications for Providers, Payers, and Policymakers. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 2004. View Details
- Herzlinger, R. E. Measuring the Financial Performance on Nonprofit Organizations: Text and Cases. Boston, MA: Harvard Business School Publishing, 1997. View Details
- Herzlinger, R. E. Measuring the Financial Performance of Nonprofit Organizations: Solutions Manual. Boston, MA: Harvard Business School Publishing, 1997. View Details
- Herzlinger, R. E. Market-Driven Health Care. Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley Publishing Company, 1996. (Winner of James A. Hamilton Award Given annually to the author of a management or healthcare book judged outstanding by the American College of Healthcare Executives' Book of the Year Committee presented by American College of Healthcare Executives. Reviewed in The Economist, Fortune, Journal of the AMA, New England Journal of Medicine, Wall Street Journal, among many others. Ingram's Current Events best seller.) View Details
- Herzlinger, R. E., and D. Nitterhouse. Financial Accounting and Managerial Control for Nonprofit Organizations. Cincinnati: South-Western Publishing Company, 1994. View Details
- Herzlinger, R. E. Creating New Health Care Ventures: The Role of Management. Gaithersburg, MD: Aspen Publishers, 1992. View Details
- Journal Articles
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- Herzlinger, Regina E., and Barak D. Richman. "Thinking Outside the Box (12): The Benefits of Increased Transparency in Employer-Sponsored Health Insurance for the 180 Million Insured." Duke Law School Public Law & Legal Theory Series, No. 2020-4, December 2019. View Details
- Herzlinger, Regina E., and Jared Mueller. "Interview with Professor Regina Herzlinger on Balancing Entrepreneurship and Corporate Governance with a Prominent Academic Career." Mayo Clinic Innovation Exchange (August 6, 2020). https://innovationexchange.mayoclinic.org/interview-with-professor-regina-herzlinger-on-balancing-entrepreneurship-and-corporate-governance-with-a-prominent-academic-career/. View Details
- Herzlinger, Regina E., and Joel Klein. "The IRS Can Save American Health Care: Letting Workers Spend Pretax Dollars on Insurance Would Do a Lot—Without Requiring Congress to Act." Wall Street Journal (online) (July 1, 2018). View Details
- Herzlinger, Regina E., and Bacchus Barua. "Europe's Alternative to Medicare for All; Swiss and Dutch Private Insurance Provide Better Coverage Than Canada's Single-Payer System." Wall Street Journal (April 17, 2019). View Details
- Herzlinger, Regina E., and Richard Boxer. "The Case for the Public Option Over Medicare for All." Harvard Business Review Digital Articles (October 10, 2019): 2–5. View Details
- Herzlinger, Regina E., and Richard Boxer. "A Public Option Can Be a Triple Win for U.S. Healthcare." Health Management, Policy and Innovation 4, no. 3 (December 2019). View Details
- Herzlinger, Regina E., and James Wallace. "Medicare for All or Public Option: Can Either Heal Health Care?" Harvard Business School Working Knowledge (January 2, 2020). View Details
- Herzlinger, Regina E. "Love in the Office is Wonderful. Except for CEOs." Harvard Business School Working Knowledge (February 20, 2020). View Details
- Herzlinger, Regina E., and Richard Boxer. "It's Time for a Bipartisan Health Plan for Employers and Employees." Harvard Business School Working Knowledge (July 20, 2020). View Details
- Herzlinger, Regina E. "The U.S. Needs an SEC for Its Health Care System." Bloomberg Opinion (August 20, 2020). View Details
- Herzlinger, Regina E., and Richard Boxer. "How to Pay for Public Option Without Tax Hike." RealClearPolicy (September 2, 2020). View Details
- Herzlinger, Regina E., Richard Boxer, and James Wallace. "Bipartisan Tax-Free Solution to Health Care Financing: Coupling HRAs With a Public Option." Health Affairs Blog (June 30, 2020). View Details
- Schulman, Kevin, Barak D. Richman, and Regina E. Herzlinger. "Shifting toward Defined Contributions—Predicting the Effects." New England Journal of Medicine 370, no. 26 (June 26, 2014). View Details
- Herzlinger, Regina E., Barak D. Richman, and Kevin A. Schulman. "Market-Based Solutions to Antitrust Threats—The Rejection of the Partners Settlement." New England Journal of Medicine 372, no. 14 (April 2, 2015): 1287–1289. View Details
- Herzlinger, Regina E., Vasant Kumar, Kevin Schulman, and Karen Staman. "Innovation in Health Care Education: A Call to Action." Health Affairs Blog (January 29, 2015). http://healthaffairs.org/blog/2015/01/29/innovation-in-health-care-education-a-call-to-action/. View Details
- Herzlinger, Regina E. "Why Economic Conservatives Should Support the Individual Mandate in Health Care." Huffington Post, The Blog (June 29, 2012). http://www.huffingtonpost.com/regina-e-herzlinger/health-insurance-market-mandate_b_1637762.html. View Details
- Herzlinger, Regina E. "Health Care Transparency: The Fox Is Guarding the Chicken Coop in Washington Again." Huffington Post, The Blog (March 24, 2014). http://www.huffingtonpost.com/regina-e-herzlinger/health-care-transparency_b_5022531.html. View Details
- Herzlinger, Regina E. "Has the Glass Ceiling Been Shattered for Women Leading Major Companies?" Huffington Post, The Blog (April 2, 2013). View Details
- Herzlinger, Regina E. "Barriers to Health Care Innovation: Regina Herzlinger Warns That Innovators Need to Know What Obstacles They Face and How to Overcome Them." IEEE Pulse 5, no. 1 (January–February 2014): 43–45. View Details
- Herzlinger, Regina E., Margo Seltzer, and Mark Gaynor. "Applying KISS to Healthcare Information Technology." Computer 46, no. 11 (November 2013): 72–74. View Details
- Herzlinger, R. E. "CDHC and Responses to Comments on CDHC." Health Care Management Review (forthcoming). View Details
- Herzlinger, Regina E., and Beatriz Munoz-Seca. "An Angel Investor with an Agenda." Harvard Business Review 89, no. 3 (March 2011). View Details
- Herzlinger, Regina E., Simons C. Matthews, and Peter Pronovost. "Focus on Quality: An Opportunity to Execute Health Care Reform." American Journal of Medical Quality 26, no. 3 (May–June 2011). View Details
- Herzlinger, Regina E., and Anthony DiGioia III. "HCAHPS and You: Using Experience-based Methodology to Deliver Exceptional Care Experiences and Outcomes." Orthopedics Today (December 2010). View Details
- Herzlinger, Regina E. "Beer, Brats, and Butterfat." Strategy + Business (October 2010). View Details
- Herzlinger, Regina E. "Healthcare Reform and Its Implications for the U.S. Economy." Business Horizons 53, no. 2 (March–April 2010). View Details
- Herzlinger, Regina E. "Health Care's Taxing Problem." National Review Online (August 2009). View Details
- Herzlinger, Regina E. "Limited Choices." National Review Online (July 2009). View Details
- Herzlinger, Regina E. "Diagnosis." National Review Online (May 2009). View Details
- Herzlinger, Regina E. "Can the United States Provide Health Care For All?" What Matters (May 2009). View Details
- Herzlinger, R. E. "Health Care Challenges for Leaders." Leader to Leader, no. 47 (Winter 2008): 39–45. View Details
- Coburn, Tom, and Regina Herzlinger. "Cross Country: They'd Sooner Fix Medicaid." Wall Street Journal (May 18, 2006). View Details
- Herzlinger, Regina E. "Why Innovation in Health Care Is So Hard." Harvard Business Review 84, no. 5 (May 2006). View Details
- Herzlinger, R. E. "Medicine for Medicaid." Wall Street Journal (August 2, 2005), A10. View Details
- Herzlinger, R. E. "Uncle Sam is No Doctor." USA Today ( March 28, 2005). View Details
- Herzlinger, Regina E. "A Corporate Push--Against Women." USA Today (December 7, 2004), A13. View Details
- Herzlinger, R. E. "An IT Trojan Horse." Modern Healthcare (September 6, 2004): 22–23. View Details
- Herzlinger, R. E. "Specialization and Its Discontents: The Pernicious Impact of Regulations Against Specialization and Physician Ownership on U.S. Health Care." Circulation 109, no. 20 (May 25, 2004): 2376–2378. View Details
- Herzlinger, R. E. "Consumer-Driven Health Care: Freeing Providers to Innovate." hfm (Healthcare Financial Management) 58, no. 3 (March 2004): 66–68. View Details
- Herzlinger, R. E. "Consumer-Driven Health Care: Taming the Health Care Cost Monster." Journal of Financial Service Professionals (March 2004): 44–48. View Details
- Herzlinger, R. E. "More Market, Less Straightjacket." Wall Street Journal (January 22, 2004), A12. View Details
- Herzlinger, R. E. "Back in the U.S.S.R." Wall Street Journal (November 26, 2003), A16. View Details
- Herzlinger, R. E. "Prix-Fix Rip-Off." Wall Street Journal (June 13, 2003), A6. View Details
- Herzlinger, R. E. "My Ivy League Soldier." Wall Street Journal (April 2, 2003), A14. View Details
- Herzlinger, Regina E. "Let's Put Consumers in Charge of Health Care." Harvard Business Review 80, no. 7 (July 2002). View Details
- Herzlinger, R. E. "Health Care Should Be More 'Transparent'." Managed Care 11, no. 1 (January 2002). View Details
- Herzlinger, Regina E. "A Better Way to Pay." Modern Healthcare (December 11, 2000): 32. View Details
- Herzlinger, Regina E. "The Outsiders." Management Accounting 78, no. 6 (June 2000). (
Winner of Chartered Institute of Management Accountants. Financial and Management Accounting Committee Award for Articles of Merit Competition presented by Chartered Institute of Management Accountants
.) View Details - Herzlinger, Regina E. "Leveling the Playing Field." Blueprint: Ideas for a New Century 6 (spring 2000). View Details
- Herzlinger, Regina E. "Market-Driven, Focused Health Care: The Role of Managers." Special Supplementary Issue on the Research of Professor R. E. Herzlinger Frontiers of Health Services Management 16, no. 3 (spring 2000). View Details
- Herzlinger, Regina E. "Market-Driven Health Care: Winners and Losers." Special Supplementary Issue RT: The Journal for Respiratory Care Practitioners (February–March 2000). View Details
- Herzlinger, Regina E. "Protection of the Health Care Consumer: The 'Truth' Agency." Blueprint: Ideas for a New Century (February 2000). View Details
- Herzlinger, Regina E. "Consumer-Driven Challenges in Health Care in the United States." Endocrine Practice 6, no. 1 (January–February 2000): 103–109. View Details
- Herzlinger, R. E. "U.S. Economic Revolution: Mapping the Future of Healthcare." PharmacoEconomics 18, no. 3 (2000). View Details
- Herzlinger, Regina E. "The 'Truth' About Managed Care." Journal of Health Politics, Policy and Law 24, no. 5 (October 1999). View Details
- Herzlinger, Regina E. "Why Market-Driven Health Care Will Replace Managed Care." Orthopedic Technology Review for the Economics of Patient, Practice and Technology Management (October–November 1999). View Details
- Herzlinger, Regina E. "Full Disclosure: A Strategy for Performance." Leader to Leader (1999): 365–73. View Details
- Herzlinger, Regina E. "The Managerial Revolution in the U.S. Health Care Sector: Lessons from the U.S. Economy." Health Care Management Review 23, no. 3 (summer 1998): 19–29. View Details
- Herzlinger, Regina E., and R. Ricci. "Dr. Know." Think Leadership Magazine 3, no. 2 (1998). View Details
- Herzlinger, Regina E. "Shopping for Your Doctor." Economist (December 1997), 68–69. View Details
- Herzlinger, Regina E. "What Doctors Can Learn from the Business World." AANS bulletin (Fall 1997). View Details
- Herzlinger, Regina E. "Market-Driven Health Care: What it Means to You." AANS bulletin (Fall 1997). View Details
- Herzlinger, R. E. "Hamburgers and Hernias." Economist (August 9, 1997). View Details
- Herzlinger, Regina E. "What Doctors Can Learn from the Business World." Hippocrates (July 1997). View Details
- Herzlinger, Regina E. "Market-Driven Health Care: What it Means to You." Hippocrates (July 1997). View Details
- Herzlinger, Regina E. "Full Disclosure: A Strategy for Performance." Leader to Leader, no. 3 (winter 1997). View Details
- Herzlinger, Regina E. "Can Public Trust in Nonprofits and Governments Be Restored?" Harvard Business Review 74, no. 2 (March–April 1996): 97–107. View Details
- Herzlinger, Regina E. "Effective Oversight: A Guide for Nonprofit Directors." Harvard Business Review 72, no. 4 (July–August 1994): 52–60. View Details
- Herzlinger, Regina E. "The Quiet Revolution." Public Interest (spring 1994). View Details
- Herzlinger, Regina E. "The Fundamental Forces Reshaping U.S. Health Care and How to Respond to Them." Managed Care Quarterly (winter 1994). View Details
- Herzlinger, Regina E. "Healthy Competition." Medical Economics (November 1991). View Details
- Herzlinger, Regina E. "Healthy Competition." The Atlantic (August 1991). View Details
- Book Chapters
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- Herzlinger, Regina E. "Consumer-Driven Health Care: Conquering Health Care Cost and Quality Demons." In Accountability and Responsibility in Health Care: Issues in Addressing an Emerging Global Challenge. Vol. 1, edited by Bruce Rosen, Avi Israeli, and Stephen Shortell. World Scientific Series in Global Healthcare Economics and Public Policy. World Scientific, 2012. View Details
- Herzlinger, Regina E. "Consumer-Driven Universal Health Care is the Best Solution." In Current Controversies: Health Care, edited by Noel Merino. Farmington Hills, MI: Greenhaven Press, 2010. View Details
- Herzlinger, R. E. "Consumer-Driven Healthcare: Transforming the Delivery of Health Services." In Futurescan: Healthcare Trends and Implications, 2006 2011, 13–20. Health Administration Press, 2006. View Details
- Herzlinger, R. E. "Can Public Trust in Nonprofits and Governments Be Restored?" In Harvard Business Review on Nonprofits. Boston, MA: Harvard Business School Press, 1999. View Details
- Herzlinger, R. E. "Effective Oversight: A Guide for Nonprofit Directors?" In Harvard Business Review on Nonprofits, 27–52. Boston, MA: Harvard Business School Press, 1999. View Details
- Herzlinger, Regina E. "Culture Is the Key." In Leading Beyond the Walls, edited by F. Hesselbein, M. Goldsmith, and I. Somerville. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass, 1999. View Details
- Herzlinger, Regina E. "Effective Oversight: A Guide for Nonprofit Directors." In Fachzeitschrift fur Nonprofit Management, edited by Michael Muller and Franziska Hiltpold. Fribourg: Verbandsmanagement Institut, 1998. View Details
- Herzlinger, Regina E. "Effective Oversight: A Guide for Nonprofit Directors." In Nonprofit Governance: The Executive's Guide, edited by V. Futter and G. Overton, 13–24. Chicago: American Bar Association, 1997. View Details
- Presentations
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- Herzlinger, Regina E., Bruce Rosen, Avi Israeli, and Steve Shortell. "Improving Health and Health Care: Who is Responsible? Who is Accountable?" International Jerusalem Conference on Health Policy, December 01, 2010. View Details
- Other Publications and Materials
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- Herzlinger, Regina E. "Benchmarks For Confronting The Challenges For Innovation In Health Care With A Modern Curriculum: 21st-Century Health Care Management Education: Confronting Challenges for Innovation with a Modern Curriculum." White Paper Series, Harvard Business School, Boston, MA, January 2013. View Details
- Herzlinger, R. E. "Consumer-Driven Health Care: Lessons from Switzerland." View Details
- Research Summary
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Winner of the Harvard Business School outstanding teacher award and research awards from U.S. and international health care and accounting organizations: 2016 “60 of the Most Powerful People in Healthcare in 2016,” Becker’s Hospital Review, January 3, 2017 ; 2014 Alumni Achievement Award; Academy of Healthcare Executives Research Award (three times); 2008 U.S. Chamber of Commerce – Who Killed Health Care? – Books that Changed the Debate; 2008 Fellow of American College of Physician Executives; 2004 Healthcare Financial Management Association’s Board of Directors Award recipient; named by Managed Healthcare as one of the top ten thinkers; honored as the Consumers for Health Care Choices Pioneer in Health Economics.Since 1999, Professor Herzlinger's work in this area has provided the major impetus for the transformation of the health care sector: first in new consumer-driven insurance products sold by established insurers such as Aetna, United and CIGNA, as well as entrepreneurial firms; and, second, in the appearance of health care focused factories. She has authored a major new book, Who Killed Health Care? (McGraw-Hill, 2007); the best-selling Market-Driven Health Care and Consumer-Driven Health Care; major journal articles; a Harvard Business School Publishing video; and a number of Wall Street Journal articles and Marketplace (NPR) editorials. Professor Herzlinger is widely quoted and interviewed on the subject.Since 2001, Professor Herzlinger has written over 50 new cases and notes for this second-year MBA course on the following subjects: insurance; providers; pharmaceuticals, diagnostics, and biotechnology; medical devices sector; and health care information. She is completing the Instructors Guide for 2011 publication.
Why do non-profit, public, and private business organizations exist? This project, begun in 2005, will became a seminar in 2007, focusing on the unique missions of these organizational forms and the resulting mechanisms for effective oversight.
- Awards & Honors
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Winner of the 2020–21 Bugbee-Falk Book Award from the Association of University Programs in Health Administration (AUPHA) for Innovating in Health Care (Wiley, forthcoming).Named one of the 60 Most Powerful People in Healthcare by Becker’s Hospital Review in 2017.Recognized as an Honorary Fellow of the American College of Healthcare Executives in 2017.Named one of Healthcare Management International's "100 Most Influential People in Healthcare--World Edition" in the Education category in 2017.Received the 2014 Beatrice D. Ellerin Award from the HBS Health Industry Alumni. The prestigious and competitive Ellerin award recognizes an outstanding leader in the health care industry who has made a significant contribution to shaping her or his field.Named one of the 40 Smartest People in Healthcare by Becker’s Hospital Review in 2014.Awarded honorary membership in the American College of Physician Executives in 2008 in recognition of her many contributions to the advancement of medical management.Winner of the 2007 Pioneer in Health Economics Award from Consumers for Health Care Choices.Winner of the 2000 Articles of Merit Competition of the Chartered Institute of Management Accountants (CIMA) Financial and Management Accounting Committee for "The Outsiders" (Management Accounting, June 2000).Winner of the 1998 James A. Hamilton Book of the Year Award presented by American College of Healthcare Executives for Market-Driven Health Care (Addison-Wesley Publishing Co. Inc., 1996).
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