Sumit Agarwal

Sumit Agarwal, MD, MPH is a PhD candidate in Health Policy and Economics at Harvard University. Dr. Agarwal's research examines the health impacts of social, economic, and insurance policies. His research also explores several areas related to primary care, including its workforce, quality of care, and payment reform. His work has been published in the New England Journal of Medicine, Journal of the American Medical Association, and Health Affairs. He holds an MD from the Mayo Clinic School of Medicine, an MPH from Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, and a BA from Washington University in St. Louis. He completed his clinical training in internal medicine and primary care at the University of Virginia and a fellowship in General Internal Medicine at Harvard Medical School. Dr. Agarwal currently sees patients as a primary care physician at Brigham and Women's Hospital.

Selected Publications:

• Agarwal SD, Sommers BD. Insurance Coverage after Job Loss - The Importance of the ACA during the Covid-Associated Recession. N Engl J Med. 2020 Oct 22; 383(17):1603-1606. 

• Agarwal SD, Basu S, Landon BE. The Underuse of Medicare's Prevention and Coordination Codes in Primary Care : A Cross-Sectional and Modeling Study. Ann Intern Med. 2022 08; 175(8):1100-1108. PMID: 35759760.

• Agarwal SD. A Third Option. JAMA. 2018 Apr 10.

• The Effect of Basic Income on Health Care Utilization: Evidence from a Randomized Study of Cash Benefits

Brief Summary: A better understanding of the effect of income on health care utilization could help inform current policy debates around a guaranteed or basic income. A cash benefit could theoretically increase health care utilization by improving access, or it could decrease health care utilization, particularly acute care, by improving health. During the first two years of the COVID-19 pandemic, the City of Chelsea, a city just outside of Boston, Massachusetts, allocated cash benefits of up to $400 per month for nine months via lottery. This lottery provided a unique opportunity to evaluate the causal effects of income on health care utilization using a randomized controlled design. Read more on ClinicalTrials.Gov.

• Inhaler Fills for COPD and Racial Equity: A Trial of Reduced Cost-Sharing

Brief Summary: Maintenance inhalers for chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) are effective in improving patient outcomes, but cost sharing may contribute to low adherence, which has been linked to higher risk of hospitalization and health care spending. A large Medicare Advantage insurer randomized beneficiaries with COPD to receive proactive outreach for a value-based insurance design (VBID) benefit that provided large reductions in cost sharing for maintenance inhalers along with medication management services. Leveraging random assignment of the intervention, we will examine how the VBID benefit affected inhaler adherence, health outcomes, and racial disparities. Read more on ClinicalTrials.Gov.

• The Impact of Minimum Wage Laws on Mental Health, Food Insecurity, and Access to Health Care

Brief Summary: While the federal minimum wage remained unchanged since 2009, thirty states have since increased their minimum wage. A robust economic and social literature has examined how the minimum wage affects earnings and employment; these studies generally show null to very modest effects on employment, positive effects on earnings, and a reduction in the racial earnings gap. Yet the impact of the minimum wage on access to health care and health has not been studied in as much detail. Using nationally representative survey data and quasi-experimental methods, we will examine three specific outcomes that could be affected most directly by increases in the minimum wage: barriers to health care, food insecurity, and psychological distress. Read more on NIH Reporter.