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STEPHEN T. PARENTE, PhD, MPH, MS is the Minnesota Insurance Industry Chair of Health Finance in Carlson School of Management and the Director of the Medical Industry Leadership Institute at the University of Minnesota.  As a Professor in the Finance Department, he specializes in health economics, health information technology, and health insurance.  He is also the Managing Principal of Health Systems Innovation (HSI) Network LLC, a health economics consultancy with over 15 predominantly PhD-level Associates as of 2013.  HSI’s recent public sector clients include the Department of Justice, the Department of Health and Human Services, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.  HSI’s private sector clients include UnitedHealth Group, Blue Cross Blue Shield, Pfizer and Medtronic as well as law firms and  private investment banks.  In addition, Dr. Parente is a principal and serves on the board of Fortel Analytics, LLC a health information technology and analytics firm focused on solutions to reduce waste, fraud and abuse in the health care delivery sector as well as auditor of health plan compliance with federal risk adjustment methodology.

Dr. Parente’s peer-reviewed publications focus on the health insurance and in particular consumer directed health plans.  He has published in peer-reviewed journals on health reform, medical technology assessment and consumer choices in health and wealth management including JAMA, Inquiry, Health Services Research, Business Economics, Health Economics, the Journal of Health Economics and Medical Care.  He has managed as principal investigator a grant portfolio of over $6 million in grants and contracts.  In addition to health insurance, his funded research at the University of Minnesota has focused medical care productivity, Medicare reform, health care e-commerce, and the national impact on health information technology on productivity and cost.  His recent work in health information technology has garnered him a nomination as a key influencer in health IT by the Health Management Information Systems Society (HIMSS).  His peer-reviewed research has been reported in the nation media outlets including: The Wall Street Journal, USA Today, New York Times, Investor’s Business Daily, Forbes, Politico, Business Week, and Washington Post.   He has discussed his research in national and local media appearances on television and radio.

In Washington DC, he serves as Governing Chair of the non-profit 501(c)(3) Health Care Cost Institute, an Adjunct Scholar of the American Enterprise Institute and is the chair of academic advisers to the Center for Health and Economy.  He also serves on the policy and advocacy committee of Academy Health in support of public financing of health services research.  He has testified to the US Congress and state government on health reform legislation including the sale of insurance across state lines.  Dr. Parente was a health policy advisor for the McCain 2008 Presidential Campaign and was responsible for modeling and describing many of the McCain plan design features that became part of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) including high risk pools, a federal health insurance exchange, and advance-able, refundable tax credits to purchase health insurance.  He also served as Legislative Fellow in the office of Senator John D. Rockefeller IV (D‑WV) during the Bush and Clinton Administrations' health reform initiatives and focused on antitrust issues in the health care market.  He has a doctorate from Johns Hopkins University and both a Masters of Public Health and a Masters of Public Policy Analysis from the University of Rochester.