In their first HCFO study, Cantor and his colleagues evaluated NYHCRA, which replaced the regulatory control of hospital rates with negotiated rates driven by market forces. Under NYHCRA, public goods including charity care and graduate medical education received state subsidies. Specifically, they investigated the effects of NYHCRA on the delivery of care to low-income populations, access to care for vulnerable populations, and the efficiency of hospitals. Following NYHCRA, safety net hospitals reported increased financial pressures with declining net patient revenue. Hospitals, in turn, increased their efforts to affiliate with networks to improve their negotiating position with payers, and made efforts to improve overall efficiency. Few changes in policies likely to affect access of low-income populations were reported. Other factors, such as the federal Balanced Budget Act of 1997, also had a strong effect on many hospitals during this period.

Cantor’s second HCFO-funded project addressed changes in New Jersey’s non-group market after the 1992 implementation of market reforms, including pure community rating and guaranteed issue regardless of health status. Cantor and his colleagues used unique administrative and survey data to examine trends in IHCP enrollment and premiums. The results indicated that, despite positive early evaluations, enrollment in the IHCP declined steadily between 1995 and 2002. A robust economy and strong market for employer coverage during this period led many younger non-group insurance enrollees to leave the individual market. This trend led to adverse risk retention in the New Jersey non-group market, threatening its long-term viability. Policy simulations by Cantor and colleagues suggest that moving from pure to modified community rating would draw many young uninsured back into the market with modestly higher premiums for older enrollees.

Cantor’s research interests focus on issues of health care financing and delivery at the state and local levels. His recent work includes studies of health insurance market regulation, access to care for low-income and minority populations, the health care safety net, and the supply of physicians providing care to underserved populations. Most recently, Cantor launched an AHRQ-funded evaluation of an innovative New Jersey hospital regulatory reform intended to address disparities in access to cardiac diagnostic services.

Dr. Cantor has published widely on health policy topics, and serves on the editorial board of the policy journal Inquiry. He is the director of the Center for State Health Policy and professor of public policy at the Edward J. Bloustein School of Planning and Public Policy at Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey. He frequently serves as an advisor to New Jersey government on health care policy. He was appointed to the State’s Mandated Health Benefits Advisory Commission by Governor McGreevey, and he serves as chair of that panel. Prior to joining the faculty at Rutgers, Dr. Cantor served as director of research at the United Hospital Fund of New York and director of evaluation research at The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. He received his doctorate in health policy and management from the Johns Hopkins University School of Hygiene and Public Health in 1988, and was elected a Fellow of AcademyHealth (formerly the Academy for Health Services Research and Health Policy) in 1996.

Selected Publications.

Monheit, A.C., J.C. Cantor, and P. Banerjee. Assessing Policy Options for the Non-Group Health Insurance Market: Simulation of the Impact of Modified Community Rating in the New Jersey Individual Health Coverage Program. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers Center for State Health Policy. March 2005. http://www.cshp.rutgers.edu/PDF/IHCPSimulationReport_Final.pdf.

Phillips, J., J. Miller, J. Cantor, and D. Gaboda. “Context or Composition: What Explains Variation in SCHIP Disenrollment?” Health Services Research, August 2004, Vol. 39, No. 4, pp. 865–85.

Pandey, S. and J. Cantor. “The Changing Profile of the Urban Uninsured: Exploring Implications of Rise in the Number of Moderate-Income Uninsureds,” Journal of Urban Health, March 2004; Vol. 81, No. 1, pp. 135–49.

Monheit, A., J. Cantor, M. Koller, and K. Fox. “Community Rating and Sustainable Individual Health Insurance Markets in New Jersey: Trends in New Jersey’s Individual Health Coverage Program reveal troubled times for the program,” Health Affairs, July/August 2004; Vol. 23, No. 4, pp.167–75.

Monheit, A. and J. Cantor, Editors. State Health Insurance Market Reform: Toward Inclusive and Sustainable Health Insurance Markets. London: Routledge Press, 2004.

Cantor, J., J. Blustein, M. Carlson, and D. Gould. “Next-of-Kin Perceptions of Physician Responsiveness to Symptoms of Hospitalized Patients Near Death,” Journal of Palliative Medicine, 2003; Vol. 6, pp. 531–41.

Hoover, D.R., S. Crystal, R. Kumar, U. Sambamoorthi, and J.C. Cantor. “Medical Expenditures During the Last Year on Life: Findings from the 1992-96 Medicare Current Beneficiary Survey.” Health Services Research, December 2002; Vol. 37, No.6, pp. 1625–42.

Prinz, T., K. Haslanger, D. DeLia , S. Fass , S. Salit, and J.C. Cantor. Hospital Markets, Policy Change, and Access to Care for Low-Income Populations in New York. Working Paper. New York: United Hospital Fund, 2000. http://www.uhfnyc.org/pubs-stories3220/pubs-stories_show.htm?doc_id=97749