Ashvin Gandhi, PhD, is a faculty associate at the UCLA Center for Health Policy Research and an assistant professor at the UCLA Anderson School of Management. He researches regulation in the health care industry. Gandhi also studies how health care providers' finances and ownership may affect the quality of care that they provide to patients. His research shows how the effect of private equity ownership on nursing home residents depends on the competitive incentives faced by the private equity owner. During the COVID-19 pandemic, Gandhi has studied the many factors affecting COVID-19 outbreaks at nursing homes, including facility quality, location, staffing, and resident composition.
In a recent project, Gandhi estimates the prevalence of discrimination in nursing home admissions and evaluates potential enforcement and mitigation solutions. In another project, he simulates the national and international impacts if the United States were to implement a rule constraining pharmaceutical prices based on prices abroad.
Gandhi earned a BA in mathematics and economics from Pomona College and a PhD in economics from Harvard University.
This mostly for-profit industry is made up of investors and equity interests, including so called “related parties” who siphon off cash to make it appear as if the nursing home is losing money.
A recent study proves this point: Tunneling and Hidden Profits in Health Care, Ashvin Gandhi, Andrew Olenski, UCLA & NBER Lehigh University, March 4. Lack of transparency in where the hundreds of billions of taxpayer dollars are actually going is a monumental problem. But, that‘s an expose for another day, and the nursing home industry would prefer to keep that quiet.