Jean M.Mitchell is an economist and Professor in the Georgetown Public Policy Institute. Her areas of expertise are health economics, health services research and applied econometrics.

Dr. Mitchell has published more than 75 peer reviewed articles in leading economics, health services research and medical journals. Her published research includes the following topics: the effects of physician self-referral arrangements on utilization and costs of health services, effects of managed care insurance on access to care for specific medical procedures; effects of managed care on physicians’ practice styles, hours of work, earnings and satisfaction with medicine as a career; physicians’ responses to Medicare fee reductions; effects of physical and mental health on labor supply and earnings; effects of a Medicaid waiver for persons with AIDS on monthly expenditures, use of services and survival; access to medical and dental care along with use of medical and dental services for children with special health care needs enrolled in managed care versus fee-for-service; effects of physician ownership of either specialty hospitals or ambulatory surgery centers on frequency of use (referral rates) for specific inpatient and outpatient surgical procedures.

Dr. Mitchell has served as principal investigator or co-principal investigator of several federally funded grants. She recently completed a project, funded by the Maternal and Child Health Research Bureau, to evaluate the effects of enrollment in managed care versus fee-for-service on use of dental care among children with special health care needs. She currently has a grant from the Maternal and Child Health Research Bureau to evaluate the effects of the school breakfast program on childrens' nutritional status.

In the early 1990s, Dr. Mitchell served as the principal researcher of a large scale study to evaluate the impact of physician self-referral arrangements on use of services, costs, access and quality of health care in Florida. This study was mandated and funded by the Florida legislature. Her findings, which were published in leading peer review journals such at the New England Journal of Medicine and the Journal of the American Medical Association, had a major impact on public policy. In response to her study, Congress passed a federal law (known as Stark II) which prohibits physicians from referring Medicare and Medicaid patients to health care facilities in which the physician has an ownership interest. At least 24 states enacted similar legislation that prohibits the practice of physician self-referral for both public and privately insured patients. All of these laws were prompted by the results of Mitchell’s research on physician self-referral arrangements in Florida.

Dr. Mitchell is continuing her work on physician self-referral arrangements by evaluating loopholes in the federal and state laws. Her ongoing work includes an examination of the effects of physician-owned specialty hospitals and ambulatory surgery centers on utilization. She also recently completed a project, funded by the California HealthCare Foundation, to document the effects of the in-office ancillary exception in existing self-referral prohibitions on the prevalence, scope and freqeuncy of use of advanced imaging technologies.

Dr. Mitchell is an avid, dedicated long distance runner. She resumed marathon running last year after a nine year hiatus. She ran the NY marathon (#11) in November 2007 in 3 hours 50 minutes and qualified for Boston. She completed the Boston marathon (#12) in April 2008 in 3 hours 45 minutes. Jean is married to Gregory de Lissovoy and they have a wonderful seven year old son Ryan.