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Biography

Bianca Kiyoe Frogner, PhD is Professor in the Department of Family Medicine in the School of Medicine at University of Washington (UW). She is the Director of the UW Center for Health Workforce Studies (CHWS) and Deputy Director of the Primary Care Innovation Lab (PCI-Lab), which are housed in the Department of Family Medicine. She is also an Adjunct Professor in the Department of Health Systems and Population Health. Dr. Frogner is a health economist (NIH T32 trainee) with expertise in health services delivery, health workforce, labor economics, health spending, health insurance coverage and reimbursement, and international health systems.

She is the Principal Investigator of two Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) Health Workforce Research Center (HWRC) grants, one focused on allied health and another focused on the training and education of health professionals to address health equity. She is an appointed member of Washington state’s Health Care Cost Transparency Board. She also sits on the UW Population Health Initiative Executive Council. Dr. Frogner recently provided testimony on health care careers to the Worker and Family Support Subcommittee of the US House Ways and Means Committee. In 2016, Dr. Frogner served on an Institute of Medicine (IOM) Consensus Study Committee on Educating Health Professionals to Address the Social Determinants of Health. She serves on the editorial board of Medical Care Research and Review.

Dr. Frogner received the 2019 John M. Eisenberg Article-of-the-Year Award as lead author of a study investigating physical therapy as the first point of care for low back pain treatment published in Health Services Research. Dr. Frogner’s has produced over 120 publications including peer-reviewed articles, book chapters, and reports. Her research has been shared in over 200 scholarly presentations and has appeared in media outlets including CNN, NPR, Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, Vox, and Politico.

Dr. Frogner completed a post-doctoral fellow at the University of Illinois at Chicago School of Public Health. Dr. Frogner received her PhD in health economics at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, and BA at University of California, Berkeley in Molecular and Cell Biology.

 

Publications

Prusynski RA, Frogner BK, Dahal AD, Skillman SM, Mroz TM Skilled nursing facility characteristics associated with financially motivated therapy and relation to quality. J Am Med Dir Assoc. Dec 2020

Armstrong D, Moore J, Fraher EP, Frogner BK, Pittman P, Spetz J Covid-19 and the health workforce. Med Care Res Rev. Oct 2020

Mroz TM, Dahal A, Prusynski R, Skillman SM, Frogner BK Variation in employment of therapy assistants in skilled nursing facilities based on organizational factors. Med Care Res Rev. Aug 2020

Mroz TM, Patterson DG, Frogner BK The impact of medicare's rural add-on payments on supply of home health agencies serving rural counties. Health Aff (Millwood). Jun 2020

Skillman SM, Dahal A, Frogner BK, Andrilla CHA Frontline workers' career pathways: A detailed look at washington state's medical assistant workforce. Med Care Res Rev. Jun 2020

Fraher EP, Pittman P, Frogner BK, Spetz J, Moore J, Beck AJ, Armstrong D, Buerhaus PI Ensuring and sustaining a pandemic workforce. N Engl J Med. Jun 2020

LeRouge C, Sangameswaran S, Frogner B, Snyder C, Rubenstein L, Kirsh S, Sayre G The group practice manager in the vha: A view from the field. Fed Pract. Feb 2020

Frogner BK, Fraher EP, Spetz J, Pittman P, Moore J, Beck AJ, Armstrong D, Buerhaus PI Modernizing scope-of-practice regulations - time to prioritize patients. N Engl J Med. Feb 2020

Ide N, Frogner B, LeRouge CM, Vigil P, Thompson M What's on your keyboard? A systematic review of the contamination of peripheral computer devices in healthcare settings. . BMJ Open. Mar 2019

Luo R, Sickler J, Vahidnia F, Lee YC, Frogner B, Thompson M Diagnosis and Management of Group A Streptococcal Pharyngitis in the United States, 2011-2015. . BMC Infect Dis. Feb 2019

Frogner BK, Harwood K, Andrilla CHA, Schwartz M, Pines JM Physical Therapy as the First Point of Care to Treat Low Back Pain: An Instrumental Variables Approach to Estimate Impact on Opioid Prescription, Health Care Utilization, and Costs. Health Serv Res. Dec 2018

Snyder CR, Frogner BK, Skillman SM. Facilitating Racial and Ethnic Diversity in the Health Workforce.. J Allied Health. 47(1):58-65.. April 2018

 

CHWS Publications

For full listings, please visit the CHWS website

Prusynski RA, Humbert A, Leland NE, Frogner BK, Saliba D, Mroz TM. Dual impacts of Medicare payment reform and the COVID-19 pandemic on therapy staffing in skilled nursing facilities Journal of the American Geriatrics Society 12-26-2022

Frogner BK. Patients Receive Flexible And Accessible Care When State Workforce Barriers Are Removed Heath Affairs 41(8):1139-1141 08-30-2022

Frogner BK. The Link Between Sick Leave Laws and Emergency Department Visits Tradeoffs 08-30-2022

Nasseh K, Frogner BK, Vujicic M. A closer look at disparities in earnings between white and minoritized dentists Health Services Research 10.1111/1475-6773 10-28-2022

van Eijk MS, Prueher L, Kett PM, Frogner BK, Guenther GA. Financial Instability of Federal Navigator Program Challenges Organizations to Help Uninsured Enroll in Health Insurance Coverage Journal of Health Care for the Poor and Underserved 33(3):1555-1568 08-01-2022

 

CHWS Presentations

For full listings, please visit the CHWS website

Frogner BK. The Shortage in Healthcare Personnel and Labor Force Issues. The Murphy Institute at Tulane University. New Orleans, LA

Frogner BK. Setting the Stage: What We Know (and Don’t Know) About the Dementia Care Workforce National Institute on Aging National Research Summit on Care, Services, and Support for Persons with Dementia and Their Care Partners/Caregivers. Virtual Event

Frogner BK. Tackling Labor Force Shortages in Health Care Roundtable Committee for Economic Development of The Conference Board

Frogner BK. Health Workforce Trends: Implications for the Therapy Workforce. Department of Rehabilitation Medicine Grand Rounds

Frogner BK. National Health Workforce Trends The Future of State Workforce Policy in Palliative Care hosted by the Center to Advance Palliative Care and the Solomon Center for Health Law and Policy at Yale Law School - Virtual

 

RHRC Publications

For full listings, please visit the RHRC website

Mroz TM, Frogner BK, Patterson DG. The impact of Medicare’s rural add-on payments on supply of home health agencies serving rural counties Health Affairs 39:6, 949-957 06-01-2020

 

RHRC Presentations

For full listings, please visit the RHRC website

Mroz TM, Patterson DG, & Frogner B. The impact of Medicare’s rural add-on payments on access to home health care Poster presented at the AcademyHealth –Long Term Services and Support Interest Group Meeting, Seattle, WA

Mroz TM, Patterson DG, & Frogner B. The impact of Medicare’s rural add-on payments on access to home health care Poster presented at the AcademyHealth Annual Research Meeting, Seattle, WA