Melinda Beeuwkes Buntin, Ph.D., is a health economist and researcher focusing on health insurance benefit design, health insurance markets, provider payment, and the care use and needs of the elderly.

Her current projects include a study of the effects of consumer-directed health care on health care access, costs, and quality and a study of the effects of Medicare payment changes on post-acute care costs and outcomes. She has also worked on projects and published in the areas of disease management, the market for individual health insurance policies, Medicare physician payment rates, the financing of end-of-life care, and Medicare managed care plan design and payment.

Dr. Buntin graduated from the Ph.D. Program in Health Policy at Harvard University where she concentrated in health economics and specialized in the economics of the Medicare program. She is a volunteer surrogate speaker for the Obama campaign.