Jack Ashby, MHA

Jack Ashby was the Director of Hospital Research at the Hawaii Medical Service Association (HMSA) from 2008 through 2022, where he led initiatives focused on improving hospital payment systems, cost efficiency, quality of care, and Medicare Advantage payment policy across the state of Hawaii. With more than four decades of experience in health care policy and finance, he specializes in research related to third-party payments, including Medicare, Medicaid, and private insurers. During much of his time as HMSA, his work centered on analyzing hospital costs, payment-to-cost ratios, and the development and operation of HMSA’s hospital pay-for-performance program. In later years, he branched out into analyzing CMS's payment policy for the Medicare Advantage program and developing a comprehensive health care center for the homeless in urban Honolulu. Since retiring, Mr. Ashby has served as a consultant to HMSA on various payment-related issues.

Before joining HMSA, Jack served as Hospital Research Director at the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission (MedPAC), where he spent 19 years advancing federal policy on Medicare payment systems and hospital reimbursement models. Earlier in his career, he held leadership roles as Vice President for Finance at the District of Columbia Hospital Association and as Group Manager for Health Systems at Applied Management Sciences, Inc., where he focused on health system performance and financial analysis.

Jack holds both a Master of Hospital Administration (MHA), today termed Health Care Management and Policy, and a Bachelor of Arts in Economics from the University of Michigan. Drawing on his extensive experience across the public and private sectors, he continues to contribute to the evolution of health care payment reform and data-driven health policy in Hawaii.

• University of Michigan-MHA
• University of Michigan-BA

• Volunteering / Philanthropic Initiatives:
• Helped developed health care systems for the homeless in urban Honolulu

Jack Ashby and Paul Young, "Problems with CMS's per capita cost measure push down Medicare Advantage rates and create geographic inequities," Health Affairs Blog, January 25, 2018.

Jack Ashby and Deborah Taira Juarez, "The relationship of hospital quality and cost per case in Hawaii," Inquiry/Volume 49, Spring 2012.

Chantal Worzala, Julian Pettengill, and Jack Ashby, “Challenges and opportunities for Medicare’s original prospective payment system,” Health Affairs, November/December 2003.

Jack Ashby, Stuart Guterman, and Timothy Greene, “An analysis of hospital productivity and product change,” Health Affairs, September/October 2000.

Stuart Guterman, Jack Ashby, and Timothy Greene, “Hospital cost growth down,” Health Affairs, Fall 1996.

Jack Ashby and Timothy Greene, “The financial implications of a global budget for facility-based health spending,” Inquiry, Winter 1993.

Jack Ashby, “The accuracy of cost measures derived from Medicare cost report data,” fourth chapter of Hospital Cost Management and Accounting, Aspen Publishers, Inc., August 1993.

Jack Ashby and Craig Lisk, “Why do hospital costs continue to increase?” Health Affairs, Summer 1992.

Jack Ashby, “The burden of uncompensated care grows,” Healthcare Financial Management, April 1992.