JEFF MCCOMBS: CELEBRATING FOUR DECADES

BROAD SPECTRUM Celebrating Four Decades as a Health Economist

Jeff McCombs, an associate professor at the USC School of Pharmacy since 1987, is retiring after a 34-year career in higher education. In addition to being a faculty member and longtime graduate program director in the school’s Department of Pharmaceutical and Health Economics, he is a senior fellow at the USC Schaeffer Center for Health Policy & Economics and holds joint appointments in the USC Leonard Davis School of Gerontology and the USC Price School of Public Policy.

“We are grateful for Dr. McCombs’ many contributions over his long career at the school and in his health economics research, and we wish him the very best in his well-deserved retirement,” says Geoffrey Joyce, chair of the Department of Pharmaceutical and Health Economics. “He was the heart of the program for many years.”

“He helped me to look at the bigger picture in healthcare and to speak the truth in healthcare policy,” says Robert Popovian, PharmD ’93, MS ’97, who studied under McCombs and is We are grateful for Dr. McCombs’ many contributions over his long career at the school and in his health economics research. … He was the heart of the program for many years.”

Geoffrey Joyce, chair, Department of Pharmaceutical and Health Economics

founder of Conquest Advisors and chief science policy officer at Global Health Living Foundation. Popovian adds that McCombs taught him to “question everything and never rely on assumptions.”

McCombs earned his doctorate in economics at the University of California, San Diego (UCSD), specializing in health economics. At UCSD, McCombs received cross training at the School of Medicine through a National Center for Health Services Research predoctoral traineeship. Before joining USC, he served as assistant professor at the Johns Hopkins School of Hygiene and Public Health, a senior project analyst at Applied Management Sciences in Silver Spring, Maryland, and a social science research analyst in the Office of Research and Demonstrations at the Health Care Financing Administration.

He has authored or co-authored articles appearing in publications such as the Journal of Health Economics, Journal of Health Politics, Policy and Law, Health Care Financing Review, Health Affairs, Value in Health, Health Services Research, Psychiatric Services, Journal of Clinical Psychiatry, Medical Care, Annals of Pharmacotherapy and American Journal of Health Systems Pharmacy. McCombs has also authored or co-authored numerous book chapters and served as a consultant to the Health Care Financing Administration and several pharmaceutical companies.

A reception will be held in his honor on May 15, 2022, during the annual conference of the International Society for Pharmacoeconomics and Outcomes Research (ISPOR) in Washington, D.C. Gifts in honor of his retirement may be made to the Health Economics Graduate Program. Contact Cheryl Stanovich at stanovic@usc.edu for more information and to RSVP for the reception.

He helped me to look at the bigger picture in healthcare and to speak the truth in healthcare policy.”

Robert Popovian, PharmD ’93, MS ’97

Screenings and Readings

After a hiatus of two years because of COVID-19, the Los Angeles Times Festival of Books returns April 23–24 to the University Park Campus. The nation’s largest book festival, the event typically draws some 150,000 attendees. Pharmacy students and faculty will offer a wide variety of free health screenings to community members at the event. They will also distribute the school’s unique fotonovelas in both English and Spanish. These community education tools cover a variety of important health topics, including an update of “Infectious Rumors,” about the importance of getting vaccinated. We are seeing frequent announcements that pharmacies are closing, and reimbursement rates aren’t getting better. The closure problem is getting worse and it affects minority communities more than others. We really can’t address medication access and health disparities if we’re not addressing pharmacy access.”

Dima Qato, Hygeia Centennial Chair, quoted in an in-depth article for the American Association of Colleges of Pharmacy