Stephen Zuckerman, Ph.D., is a principal research associate in the Health Policy Center of the Urban Institute. He received his doctorate in economics from Columbia University in 1983 and has studied health economics and health policy for almost 25 years.

Currently, he is addressing policies to protect Medicare's most vulnerable beneficiaries, physician payment, the cost of practices becoming medical homes, and pay-for-performance. Other issues he has worked on include Medicaid financing, crowd-out of private coverage by SCHIP, state coverage expansion for adults, the health care safety net, and survey approaches for measuring insurance coverage.

Dr. Zuckerman also co-directed the development of the Geographic Practice Cost Indices used in the Medicare physician fee schedule. Prior to joining the Institute, he worked at the American Medical Association's Center for Health Policy Research.