ChatGPT now insisting against all reason that Anderson, Indiana was a Metropolitan Statistical Area in 2020. So far it has linked to the 2020 OMB PDF, given me a page number, and provided a text extract showing it as an MSA. (Anderson, Indiana wasn't an MSA in 2020, all of this was hallucinated!!!)

CMS makes it official: no plans to cancel physical Medicare and Medicaid data access, forcing everyone to use the VRDC enclave. Instead, some more paperwork to make and extend DUAs – which is way better than what they were proposing!

It's that time of year again!! Attn all NYC-area health economists, submit your papers and mark your calendars for NYC Health Econ Day 2026 on Friday, May 1 at NYU Wagner. More info here: www.stern.nyu.edu/experience-s...

I'm on the #EconJobMarket! I study how policies and childhood environments shape outcomes of low-income & vulnerable kids. In my JMP, I study the effects of allowing youth who would have aged out of foster care at 18 to stay until 21—offering support their peers not in foster care get from parents.

Do you love health economics and learning about cool new research? Do you like telling other people about it? Come and be a social media editor at AJHE!! We're looking for someone to join our editorial team @ashecon.bsky.social

This is *extremely* bad (for the accuracy of my paper introductions about tech adoption)

@allanmjoseph.bsky.social has been telling me there needs to be a "Dartmouth Atlas, but for pediatrics" for maybe a literal decade? And now there is! (h/t to coauthor @johngraves.bsky.social)

Fun fact: you can estimate a conditional logit by running a fixed effects Poisson. They yield the same estimates and standard errors - they maximize the same likelihood. Poisson regression forever!

Very excited this is coming out soon! cc @ambarlaforgia.bsky.social

I thought I'd put the administration's proposed "compact" with universities in context, so I wrote the blog post below. It's especially for journalists covering this story! Many details about how the compact itself works and why the administration has retreated to this strategy.

The 2025 academic econ job market is trending better than the first COVID market year but worse than the rest of 2019-present www.davidvandijcke.com/joe_tracker/

The bus I've been taking this week makes local stops then runs on the highway. Like the bus in the movie Speed. It's all I can think about on my way in.

Out today in @jamapsychiatry.com: we find that inpatient psychiatric bed supply increasingly comes from freestanding psychiatric hospitals in large for-profit chains. Authors: Karen Shen @johnshopkinssph.bsky.social Mark Olfson @columbiapsych.bsky.social + me jamanetwork.com/journals/jam...

Yesterday I had the privilege of visiting the Broad Street pump! Sadly, I saw that the pump handle had been removed. I worked to reinstall the pump handle so local residents would not be deprived of this vital resource. So glad to bring some of the latest American public health ingenuity to London!

Statement from the largest economics association about the BLS firing As context: AEA approximately never makes such public statements This is a big deal

News reports say Columbia paid a "fine" of $200 million, which is grossly excessive, given the lack of any government authority to impose such a fine. On the blog, I parse the agreement and the stakes to explain what the dollar figure really reflects and its ominous implications. 👇

Characteristically clear-eyed thinking on the dangers of "regulation by deal" from my colleague David Pozen. balkin.blogspot.com/2025/07/regu...

Great rejoinder to a WSJ letter that (IMO quite incorrectly) interpreted the Oregon Health Insurance Experiment as showing that Medicaid doesn't improve health. www.statnews.com/2025/07/03/o...

Trying to identify opioids and other drugs in pharmacy data (claims, PDMP, etc.)? Use my code to quickly build a list of national drug codes (NDCs) using the free public database RxNorm. I wrote this code to replace the CDC's now-discontinued opioid NDC dataset. github.com/asacarny/dru...

My HCRIS hospital cost report code + data is updated through 2024! I threw the switch and moved everything to R. The new code lets you pull variables from the alphanumeric file, like hospital names and IDs. NB: I'm using this data now but pls think of it like beta testing. github.com/asacarny/hos...

A lot of you have been asking how my 10 million beneficial nematodes are doing. Well the answer is that me and my 10 million microscopic sons are doing great! Thanks so much

Currently in an ASHEcon session where my collaborator will be presenting our paper so I’m covering my name tag and whispering to people in the audience that I heard the last paper is really good with a very solid identification strategy

I know a lot is happening right now, so I want to pass along some happier news: I just purchased 10 million beneficial nematodes.

Extremely bad news is right. And I worry the same forces are coming for federal health care data.

This is TOMORROW!

Arguing with the IRB about publishing research out of quality improvement work

We published our 6 calls to action for the CU board of trustees today: www.columbiaspectator.com/opinion/2025... “We are at a crossroads in history where we can either succumb to authoritarianism or stand up against it.”

Come work with Kosali Simon & me @nber.org! We're hiring a Research Scientist to support exciting new work on Alzheimer's disease and dementia in Medicare. If you have a quant PhD, experience with claims data, and knowledge of R, it could be a great match! More info: www.aeaweb.org/joe/listing....

CMS asked the public for advice on how to move Medicare/Medicaid data users to their VRDC enclave, ending on-site physical access to this data. In my reply attached here, I say the best way to promote high-quality care and protect the trust fund is to maintain and *improve* on-site data access.

Proud to participate in this today

Columbia community! Join us tomorrow to stand with our colleagues in defense of of our students, patients, research, science, and teaching. Press conference immediately after at 1:15PM outside the Columbia gates on Amsterdam. ✊✊🏽✊🏾✊🏿 Follow: @cuimcstandsup.bsky.social @aaup.bsky.social

Join us on Monday as we call on Columbia and the Board of Trustees to resist the Trump administration's assault on our students, research, teaching and patients! 📍Low Library Steps ⏰ 12:30pm Monday April 14

NYC Health Econ Day is coming May 9 @ NYU Wagner! We'll have 6 great papers + lots of time to chat. Folks in the greater NYC area are invited! RSVP: docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1F... More info: www.stern.nyu.edu/experience-s... Organizers: @ambond.bsky.social, Mike Dickstein, Jessica Van Parys + me

Reducing administrative burdens helps people access support. If the govt already knows the answer to the question, why make you fill it out? www.nber.org/papers/w30885

of all the things the administration is doing, i am a little mystified by this effort to completely destroy the science, technology and medical research sector in the united states

A little update on this. I've now heard that the due date for amending a DUA to remove the word "gender" is specific to the DUA expiration date and *not* universally April 23

Every single university president should be asked, in public, why they are not speaking out this way to support all the students currently detained without due process, and all those terrified that they will be next, on every campus in this country. Yes, including Columbia's acting president.

I predict clamp downs on all data access. For researchers that remain employed, consider data from health systems and other creative approaches (e.g., using Google/AI queries). Also, maybe some states/entitles will collaborate to cobble some things together.

I'm thinking about the precious few comprehensive datasets available to study the US health care system and so many are under threat. With the AHRQ cuts, is it still possible to start new HCUP (hospital discharge/ED) projects? How will cuts affect access to Medicare/Medicaid claims? I have no clue.

Over 200 CUIMC medical, public health, and nursing researchers, clinical, support staff, and students took a stand in Haven Plaza Thursday March 27th. Standing up to Protect our Research, Protect our Students, Defend Science, Academic freedom and voicing the need for Columbia to Fight Back!!!

I'm hearing that all CMS DUAs that use the word 'gender' in their documentation will have to change that word to 'sex'. The message I saw from ResDAC said users must submit an amendment by April 23.

"The attack on Columbia is a radical threat to scholarly excellence and to America’s leadership in research. Universities and their leaders should speak up and litigate forcefully to protect their rights."

Over 200 academics across the country, and across fields, have signed on so far. The full letter and current list of signatories (updated periodically) can now be found here: docs.google.com/document/d/1...

From my brilliant colleague and friend. This is work to improve maternal and child health. Canceling it would be shameful

"We are Jewish faculty, scholars, and students at U.S. universities — representative of the community that this administration purports to be protecting from antisemitism on campuses. Let us be clear: These actions do not protect us." forms.gle/prnRbq69a6YN...

They are cancelling grants for path-breaking research to improve people's health care. I get that Columbia is no sympathetic target in the abstract. But the work that's under threat matters for real-life patients. The rescissions are blatantly illegal and will cause real harm.

Since it apparently needs to be said: As a Jew who works on a university campus, I am safest in a country that protects academic freedom and liberal values of due process of law. Anyone who supports extrajudicial detention of students for "wrong" ideological opinions is not doing it for my safety.

Look, folks, this is it. The entire ballgame. Either we're a Republic of laws & the Constitution, or we have a dictator. This is fascism, & the impeachment vote should be happening today. Every single university president in the country should be out, in front of microphones, condemning this.

If you think that cutting off a university's funds is about anti-Semitism, - You will be very surprised when they come after you for not censoring itself in response to power, and find some other excuse. - You are allowing the powerful to play minorities against each other. Just call bullshit.