Call for Abstracts

Abstracts are now open!
The Program Committee of the 15th Annual Conference of the American Society of Health Economists invites individuals to submit proposals for consideration by the scientific review committee. We are soliciting: individual abstracts to be combined into sessions, organized sessions made up of 3 abstracts, individual abstracts for emerging scholars sessions and submissions for policy roundtables, spotlight sessions.

Submissions are now open. The deadline for submissions is December 10, 2025.

Please contact info@ashecon.org with any questions.

2026 Program Areas and Chairs

Area	Chair	Email
Health Systems and Health Care Financing	Hannah Neprash	hneprash@umn.edu
Alcohol, Tobacco, Narcotics, and Addiction	Monica Deza	mdeza@syr.edu
Health Equity	Benjamin Harrell	bharrell@trinity.edu
Effects of Health Insurance and Consumer Decision Making	Coleman Drake	CDRAKE@pitt.edu
Prescription Drugs	Luca Mani	maini@hcp.med.harvard.edu
Aging and Long-Term Care	Ashvin Gandhi	ashvin.gandhi@anderson.ucla.edu
Mental and Behavioral Health	Lindsay Allen	lindsay.allen@northwestern.edu
Health, Labor Markets, and the Economy	Chris Lowenstein	clowenstein@missouri.edu
Maternal, Sexual, and Reproductive Health	Mayra Pineda-Torres	mpinedat@gatech.edu
Insurer and Hospital Behavior	Adam Sacarny	ajs2102@cumc.columbia.edu
Health and Development	Anne Fitzpatrick	Fitzpatrick.88@osu.edu
Competition in Health Care Markets	Ashley Swanson	swanson25@wisc.edu
Provider Labor Markets and Treatment Decisions	Ian McCarthy	ian.mccarthy@emory.edu
Child and Infant Health	Angelica Meinhofer	anm4001@med.cornell.edu
Environment and Health	Michelle Marcus	michelle.marcus@vanderbilt.edu
Diet, Physical Activity, and Obesity	Brandyn Churchill	bchurchill@american.edu
Innovation and Digitization	Lucy Xiaolu Wang	xiaoluwang@umass.edu
Health Econometrics	Edward Norton	ecnorton@umich.edu
Illegal Activities, the Criminal Justice System, and Health	Anita Mukherjee	anita.mukherjee@wisc.edu
Economic Theory of Health and Health Care	Michael Darden	mdarden4@jhu.edu
The Profession of Health Economics	Alex Hollingsworth	hollingsworth.126@osu.edu

Submission Types

Organized Session – Organized sessions are composed of 3 papers. Sessions with three papers must also have three discussants and a chair. In total, each session will have three presenting authors, three discussants and one session chair.  Please note that abstracts within organized sessions may be rejected, accepted as a poster, or transferred to another session. All transferred or rejected abstracts will be replaced with a different abstract.

Individual Abstracts – A submission based on a single paper. The papers will be scored on their own merit then grouped with similar papers to be presented in an organized session at the conference. Individual abstracts not selected for inclusion in the conference will be considered for a poster if requested by the author during the submission process.

Emerging Scholars  –  Emerging Scholar submissions are open only to PhD students. All abstracts must be 500 words or less. Submitters will be asked to categorize their roundtable into one of the Program Areas. The abstracts will be scored on their own merit then grouped with similar papers to be presented in an organized session at the conference. Sessions will, if possible, be organized around a common topic area. In order to focus attention on this research there will be one time slot of concurrent sessions devoted only to the Emerging Scholars sessions. Discussants will be senior scholars expert in the area of research of the student’s paper. Moderators will be eminent senior scholars.

Policy Roundtable – Roundtables are not abstract dependent, but rather feature speakers who will discuss a topic from varying perspectives and draw the audience into a discussion on the topic. Submitters will be asked to categorize their roundtable into one of the Program Areas.  Roundtable submissions should include no more than one moderator and at least two presenters. Examples of potential titles include: “The Future of Prescription Drug Reimbursement” and “Assessing and Accelerating State Implementation of Value-Based Payment Reforms.” All participants must register for the conference.

Spotlight Sessions – Spotlight Sessions are 90-minute sessions that will focus on special interest or career enhancement topics. Submitters will be asked to categorize their session into one of the Program Areas. The sessions are not abstract dependent. Examples of potential titles include: “Career Opportunities for Health Economists in Government and Public Service” and “Translating Research into Policy: How Claims Data Can Help Shape Public Policy on Healthcare and Assess Its Impact.” All participants must register for the conference. Sessions may be delivered by no more than one moderator and any number of presenters.

Single Abstract Listing

The Single Abstract Listings is a compilation of all the single abstract submissions received thus far, sorted by program area, that might help complete or create a full panel. As a reminder, fully submitted organized session submissions (three papers and with three discussants) have an average acceptance rate of 80% as compared to 40% for single abstract submissions.

How Do I Use the Single Abstract Submission Listing?
If you find an abstract (or abstracts) in the listing that you would like to use to create or fill out a panel, we encourage you to reach out to the author  and see if they would like to be part of the panel. If they would like to be part of the panel, they would need to withdraw their single abstract submission (they can do this by logging into the abstract system via the link in the confirmation email received when the abstract was submitted) and resubmit the abstract as part of the new panel.

The Single Abstract Listing is updated each week starting October 21st, 2026.

Call for Abstract Reviewers!

The American Society of Health Economists is seeking ASHEcon members to join the Scientific Review Committee in the peer review of abstracts submitted for consideration for the 2026 ASHEcon conference as the Hyatt Regency Minneapolis, MN. Reviewers are essential to efficiently evaluate proposals and to ensure the quality session offerings to conference attendees.

Abstract reviews will take place in December 2025 and January 2026 (exact dates TBD).

Qualifications
Abstract reviewers must be current ASHEcon members. If your membership has expired, you’ll be asked to renew your membership before submitting.

Time Commitment
Reviewers will evaluate the submissions based on a pre-determined set of criteria. The number of abstracts assigned to reviewers varies and is dependent on the total number of submissions and the number of reviewers.

Prior to signing up to be a reviewer, consider your time and your availability to review abstracts in December 2025 and January 2026 (exact dates TBD).