George H. Pink, PhD

George H. Pink, Ph.D., is Humana Distinguished Professor in the Department of Health Policy and Management, Senior Research Fellow at the Cecil G. Sheps Center for Health Services Research, and Deputy Director of the NC Rural Health Research Program, all at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. 

Dr. Pink teaches courses in healthcare finance and is involved in several research projects, including the Rapid Response to Requests for Rural Data Analysis and Issue-specific Rural Research Studies, Rural Health Research Grant Program and the Rural Hospital Flexibility Program Evaluation, all funded by the federal Office of Rural Health Policy. 

Prior to receiving a PhD in corporate finance, he spent ten years in health services management, planning, and consulting. In the past 30 years, he has served on over 100 boards and committees of hospitals and other healthcare organizations. He has written more than 80 peer-reviewed articles and has made more than 250 presentations in ten countries. He is a member of the Board of Piedmont Health Service, a large community health center that provides primary health care to residents of five largely rural counties in North Carolina.

Honors and Awards

2013, National Rural Health Association

Representative Courses

HPM 743 Healthcare Reimbursement

HPM 747 Healthcare Finance

Key Publications

Predicting a Latent Index of Financial Distress for Rural Hospitals. GM Holmes, BG Kaufman and GH Pink Journal of Rural Health (forthcoming).

The Signaling Effects of the US Food and Drug Administration Fast-Track Designation. KL Miller, C Nardinelli, GH Pink, and KL Reiter Managerial and Decision Economics (forthcoming).

Has the Affordable Care Act’s Medicare Low Volume Hospital Adjustment Improved the Financial Performance of Qualifying Rural Hospitals? RG Whitaker, GM Holmes, and GH Pink Journal of Rural Health (forthcoming).

To what extent do community characteristics explain differences in closure among financially distressed rural hospitals? S Thomas, GM Holmes, and GH Pink. (2016). Journal of Health Care for the Poor & Underserved, 27(1), 193-204.

Medicaid Expansion Affects Rural and Urban Hospitals Differently. BG Kaufman, KL Reiter, GH Pink, and GM Holmes. (2016). Health Affairs, 35(9), 1665-1672.

The Rising Rate of Rural Hospital Closures. BG Kaufman, SR Thomas, RK Randolph, JR Perry, KW Thompson, GM Holmes, and GH Pink. (2016). Journal of Rural Health, 31(1), 35-43.

Rural Hospital Mergers & Acquisitions: Which hospitals are being acquired and how are they performing afterwards? M Noles, KL Reiter, J Boortz-Marx, and GH Pink. (2015). Journal of Healthcare Management, 60(6), 395-407.

Uncompensated care burden may mean financial vulnerability for rural hospitals in states that did not expand Medicaid. KL Reiter, M Noles, and GH Pink (2015). Health Affairs, 34(10), 1721-9.

Minimum-distance requirements could harm high-performing critical-access hospitals and rural communities. Michelle Casey, G. Holmes, Peiyin Hung, Ira Moscovice, George Pink (2015). Health Affairs, 34(4), 627-635.

The Effect of General Surgery Services on the Profitability of Rural Hospitals in the United States. S Karim, GM Holmes, and GH Pink (2015). Journal of Healthcare Finance.

Education

BComm, Marketing, University of Calgary, 1975

MHSA, Health Administration, University of Alberta, 1978

PhD, Finance, University of Toronto, 1988