Miriam Laugesen

Miriam Laugesen, PhD, is a tenured Associate Professor in the Department of Health Policy and Management. She is an expert in physician reimbursement, primary care, and private investment in healthcare.

Her book, Fixing Medical Prices: How Physicians Are Paid (Harvard University Press, 2016), examines how physician payment policy is shaped by medical organizations. The book contributed to the National Academy of Medicine’s primary care recommendations (2021, 2025) as well as a bipartisan Senate bill, the Pay PCPs Act (2024). She is also the coauthor of Democratic Governance and Health (Otago University Press, 2012), with Robin Gauld.

From 2023 to 2024, Laugesen was a Robert Wood Johnson Health Policy Fellow at the National Academy of Medicine, during which she served as a Legislative Fellow in the office of Senator Elizabeth Warren, contributing to legislation and oversight on private equity investments in health.

She advises state governments on health system reform, including a 2026 project for the New Mexico Legislature on administrative simplification and an earlier engagement for the New Mexico Superintendent of Insurance on physician payment models.

Her research has been featured in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, Politico, The Atlantic, and media outlets globally. She is a former President of the American Political Science Association’s Health Politics Section, a Fulbright Scholar, and a Council on Foreign Relations International Affairs Hitachi Fellow to Japan (2023). She has been recognized by Columbia University as a Provost Leadership Fellow and Tow Faculty Scholar. She currently serves on the National Academy of Medicine Workgroup on Private Investment in Healthcare.

In the classroom, Laugesen teaches health policy and political analysis, the core integration of science and practice (ISP) class, public health leadership, and policy advocacy. She aims to build students’ practical skills while offering frameworks they can apply across different settings—and she remains a steady point of contact for many former students as they navigate career transitions.

Laugesen earned her PhD from the University of Melbourne, with predoctoral work at Harvard University’s Health Policy PhD Program and postdoctoral training in health services research at RAND–UCLA.