Paul Hattis

Senior Fellow

Dr. Paul Hattis, a physician-attorney, has joined the Lown Institute as a Senior Fellow, after retiring recently from his role as Senior Associate Director of the MPH Program at Tufts University Medical School and a member of the faculty in the Department of Public Health and Community Medicine.   

With a strong interest in state health care policy, Dr. Hattis currently co-hosts, with colleague John McDonough of the Harvard School of Public Health, “Health or Consequences” a podcast focused on Massachusetts public health and health care policy issues under the sponsorship of Commonwealth Magazine. Dr. Hattis also currently is an active opinion writer for Commonwealth, writing on a variety of state health care and higher ed policy topics.  

Over many years, Paul’s policy-oriented research efforts have focused on the issues of hospital accountability to communities, and on efforts to advance consumer advocacy on health care costs and system affordability. Dr. Hattis, was appointed in 2012 as the inaugural Consumer Advocate board member on the Massachusetts Health Policy Commission. And in 2018, Massachusetts Attorney General Healey appointed Dr. Hattis to a task group that helped to revise the Massachusetts community benefit guidelines for hospitals and health plans.

Prior to his joining Tufts University, Dr. Hattis served for 5 years as the Senior Medical Advisor to the Department of Community Benefit Programs of the Partners Healthcare System of Boston, MA. In his capacity at Partners, Dr. Hattis worked with staff from Massachusetts General Hospital, Brigham and Women’s Hospital, other affiliated hospitals and neighborhood community health centers to support systematic efforts to improve primary care and public health delivery in the neighborhoods of Boston. 

Previously, he was Vice President of Medical Affairs at the Carney Hospital of Boston, a senior research professor in the Wagner School of Public Service at New York University, and deputy director of the Hospital Community Benefit Standards Program (HCBSP), a W.K. Kellogg Foundation sponsored initiative. Dr. Hattis received his medical and law degrees from the University of Illinois where he was part of the Medical Scholars Program. He also received a Masters of Public Health degree from UCLA and a Bachelor of Science from the University of Michigan. Dr. Hattis is board certified in Public Health and Preventive Medicine and is a Fellow of the American College of Preventive Medicine. He is the co-author of two books, and a number of articles related to his academic areas of interest.