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NORC at the University Chicago

Sai Loganathan

Principal Health Economist
Health Care Evaluation
Applied Health Economics Program Area
Sai has expertise in patient safety and quality of care, payment and delivery system reform, and price transparency and market consolidation.

Sai Loganathan is a principal health economist at NORC, where he provides strategic and technical leadership on large‑scale federal evaluations, data infrastructure initiatives, and policy analyses focused on health system performance. With nearly two decades of experience in applied health economics, Sai specializes in payment and delivery system reform, patient safety, hospital pricing and market consolidation, Medicare policy, and long‑term and end‑of‑life care. He brings deep expertise in evaluation design, causal inference, advanced econometric methods, and complex survey and claims‑based analysis across Medicare, Medicaid, and all‑payer data systems.

Sai is recognized for his ability to translate quantitative and mixed‑methods research into actionable insights for policymakers, federal agencies, and health system stakeholders, while mentoring multidisciplinary teams and advancing methodological innovation across NORC’s health policy portfolio.

Sai currently directs NORC’s evaluation of the CMS Innovation Center’s Vermont All‑Payer ACO Model, serving as project director and principal investigator and leading evaluation design, analytic strategy, and dissemination of findings to federal leadership. He also provides senior advisory and impact analysis leadership for the Evaluation of the Pennsylvania Rural Health Model and recently served as comparative effectiveness review task lead for CMS‑CMMI’s drug pricing initiatives. As research and analytics lead for AHRQ’s Healthcare Cost and Utilization Project (HCUP), Sai oversees analytic development, authors high‑impact statistical briefs and Congressional reports, and guides the evolution of HCUP research tools and dashboards. He has also led national evaluations for AHRQ, including the National Nursing Home COVID‑19 Coordinating Center and patient safety initiatives focused on health IT and adverse events.

Prior to joining NORC, Sai served as a research analyst at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office of the Inspector General, where he conducted foundational analyses on adverse events in U.S. hospitals using inpatient encounter and medical record data. He later worked as a health services researcher for a national Quality Improvement Network–Quality Improvement Organization, supporting Medicare quality and patient safety initiatives.

Sai is the lead or contributing author on numerous peer‑reviewed publications and federal reports, including a landmark Health Affairs article on the affordability of long‑term care and housing for middle‑income seniors that ranked among the most‑read articles of 2019. His work has informed federal payment policy, safety initiatives, and care delivery reforms nationwide.

Project Contributions

Dissemination of AHRQ’s On-Time Pressure Ulcer Prevention Program

Disseminating a safety program to nursing homes and then assessing its impact

Funder:

Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality

Evaluation of the Next Generation Accountable Care Organization Model

Assessing CMS’s innovative ACO model to improve outcomes and reduce costs for Medicare beneficiaries

Client:

Center for Medicare & Medicaid Innovation within the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services

Evaluation of the Vermont All-Payer Accountable Care Organization Model

Evaluating Vermont’s efforts to improve health outcomes and reduce health care spending

Client:

Center for Medicare & Medicaid Innovation within the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services

The Forgotten Middle in 2033

An analysis of middle-income seniors and ability to afford housing and health care

Client:

The SCAN Foundation

Pediatric Private Duty Nursing in Medicaid

Analyzing pediatric PDN service use across 11 key Medicaid markets

Client:

Angels of Care Pediatric Home Health

Modeling Hospital Cost Growth in California

Informing statewide health care affordability benchmarks through hospital cost modeling

Client:

Association of California Life and Health Insurance Companies

AHRQ’s National Nursing Home COVID-19 Coordinating Center

Connecting AHRQ’s nursing home safety initiatives and the nursing home quality improvement community

Client:

Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality

Evaluation of the Pennsylvania Rural Health Model

Assessing efforts to improve the financial health of rural hospitals and maintain access to care

Client:

Center for Medicare & Medicaid Innovation within the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services

Healthcare Cost and Utilization Project (HCUP)

The nation’s most comprehensive source of hospital care data

Client:

Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality

Publications

Research Library & Findings