Jangho Yoon PhD, MSPH

Education

Post-Doctoral Scholar, The National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) Mental Health Economics Training Program (T32 National Research Service Award), The University of California, Berkeley, 2007-2009.
Ph.D., Health Policy and Administration (Minor: Economics), Gillings School of Global Public Health, The University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, 2007.
M.S.P.H., Health Policy and Administration (Minor: Economics), Gillings School of Global Public Health, The University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, 2002.
B.H.A., Health Administration, Yonsei University, South Korea.

Biography

Dr. Jangho Yoon is a Professor and Vice Chair for Research in the Department of Preventive Medicine and Biostatistics at the F. Edward Hébert School of Medicine, Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences (USU). He founded the Military Health Economics and Policy Research (MILHEP) Laboratory within the department. A health economist and health services researcher, Dr. Yoon conducts policy-relevant research on mental health policy and economics, health insurance coverage and benefit design, and health care delivery system reform. His work has appeared in journals including Health Services Research, Social Science & Medicine, Health Affairs, American Journal of Public Health, Medical Care Research and Review, Health Economics, Health Economics Review, and the Journal of Mental Health Policy and Economics.
Dr. Yoon’s scholarship spans several areas. He has examined mental health system and policy changes, psychiatric deinstitutionalization, return on investment in public mental health, psychiatric emergency department boarding, and inter-system impacts. He has evaluated the effects of Medicaid expansion and the Affordable Care Act on insurance coverage, access to care, and maternal and infant health, along with Oregon’s Medicaid accountable care reform. More recently, he has led evaluations of Military Health System policies, including TRICARE’s behavioral health parity reform and the Brandon Act, as well as TRICARE reimbursement policy and cost-effectiveness analyses of health plans. His research has been funded by the Defense Health Agency, the National Institutes of Health, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention, and state agencies. He has authored more than 70 peer-reviewed articles, and his honors include the Willard Manning Award in Mental Health Policy and Economics Research (2021), the Frontiers in Health Services Paper of the Year Award (2023), and the Oregon Public Health Association Policy Champion Award (2017).
Dr. Yoon received his PhD in Health Policy and Administration (minor in Economics) and MSPH in Health Policy and Administration (minor in Economics) from the Gillings School of Global Public Health at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He completed postdoctoral training in mental health economics at the University of California, Berkeley (2007-2009) as a National Institute of Mental Health National Research Service Award recipient. Before joining USU in 2020, he was a tenured faculty member at Oregon State University (2011-2020) and Georgia Southern University (2009-2011). His methodological expertise includes quasi-experimental analysis, causal inference, record linkage, analysis of health care claims and complex survey data, and cost-effectiveness analysis.
Dr. Yoon is a dedicated educator and mentor. He has chaired 10 doctoral dissertations, served on the committees of 18 additional dissertations, and advised over 40 master’s students, and he has taught courses in U.S. health policy, health economics, health econometrics, quantitative research methods, and cost-effectiveness analysis.
His professional service is international in scope. He has served as Scientific Advisor to the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention, as a member of the Board of Directors of the Korean Society of Health Policy and Administration, as a health economics consultant to the World Health Organization, as a Visiting Research Fellow at the Korea Institute for Health and Social Affairs (KIHASA), and as a Fellow at the Health Insurance Review and Assessment Service (HIRA) of South Korea. He has also served on journal editorial boards and as a scientific reviewer for AcademyHealth, American Public Health Association, and the American Society of Health Economists.

Career Highlights: Positions, Projects, Deployments, Awards and Additional Publications

“Impacts of TRICARE’s Behavioral Health Benefit Expansions on Behavioral Health Care Utilization, Beneficiary Health, and Health Readiness of the Force”, October 1, 2023 – September 30, 2025. Funding Agency: DOD/DHA 2023 Military Health Systems Research, $1,032,356. Role: PI.

“A Data-Driven Approach to Optimizing MHS GENESIS Queue Management: Reducing Care Delays, Improving Patient and Provider Outcomes, and Enhancing System Efficiency”, July 2025 – December 2026. Funding Agency: DoD DHA, $1,038,000. Role: PI.

“Evaluation of TRICARE Reimbursement System Effectiveness: DMEPOS Fee Schedules, Addendum E, and TRICARE-Designated NTAPs", July 1, 2026 – December 31, 2027. Funding Agency: DoD DHA, $550,000. Role: PI.

“A Longitudinal Cost-Effectiveness Analysis of the "US Family Health Plan (USFHP) Compared to Traditional TRICARE Prime and Commercial Health Plans.” March 1, 2026 – March 1, 2027. Funding Agency: DOD DHA, $1,090,017. Role: Co-PI. [PI: Patrick Richard]

“Assessing the Effect of the Military Health System Consolidation under a Single Management Structure on Health Care Utilization, Cost, Quality and Military Readiness”, October 1, 2023 – September 30, 2025. Funding Agency: DoD/DHA 2023 Military Health Systems Research Program, $1,235,705. Role: Co-I [PI: Patrick Richard]

“A Systems Approach to Perinatal Opioid Exposure and Maternal Suicidality”, October 2021 – September 2023. Funding Agency: American Foundation for Suicide Prevention, $99,699. Role: PI.

“Emergency Department Psychiatric Boarding Study”, November 2015-September 2016. Funding Agency: Oregon Health Authority, #139058, $119,732. Role: PI.

“Medicaid Expansion in Oregon: Access and Health Outcomes for Women and Infants”, September 30, 2013 – September 30, 2019. Funding Agency: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, $1,500,000. Role: Co-I. [Co-PIs: Marie Harvey, and Jeff Luck]

Willard Manning Award in Mental Health Policy and Economics Research – 2021 (with Marisa Domino, Edward Norton, Gary Cuddeback, and Joseph Morrissey)

Policy Champion Award, Oregon Public Health Association, October 10, 2017.

Representative Bibliography

Yoon J. The Impact of Behavioral Health Parity on Suicide Attempts Among Military Beneficiaries. Health Econoics Review. 2026 September 29. Available from: https://link.springer.com/article/10.1186/s13561-026-00864-3

Yoon J, Ghim S, Lindow M, Gedeon D, Richard P. Suicide Prevention in the US Military: Assessing the Impact of the Brandon Act. Health Services Research. 2026 Oct;61(5):e70167. PubMed Central PMCID: PMC13570209.

Yoon J., Hawks B. (2025). Improvement in physical and mental health attributable to the affordable care act. Frontiers in Health Services, 5:1466958. doi: 10.3389/frhs.2025.1466958.

Yoon J, Harvey SM, Luck J. (2022). “Medicaid Expansion and Depression Screening and Treatment Among Pregnant and Postpartum Women in Oregon.” Frontiers in Health Services. https://doi.org/10.3389/frhs.2022.942476

Yoon J, Bruckner TA, Das A, Richard P. (2022). “Firearm Availability, Suicide, and the Role of Public Mental Health System.” Journal of Mental Health Policy and Economics 25(2):61-73.

Yoon J, Bui L., Govier D., Cahn M, Luck J. (2020). “Determinants of boarding of psychiatric patients with severe mental illness in hospital emergency departments.” The Journal of Mental Health Policy and Economics, 23(2): 61-75.

Yoon J, Luck J. (2016) “Inter-System Return on Investment in Public Mental Health: Spill-Over Effect of State Mental Health Expenditures on the Jail System.” Social Science & Medicine 170: 133-142. doi: 10.1016/j.socscimed.2016.10.015.

Yoon J, Bruckner TA., Brown TT. (2013). “The Association Between Client Characteristics and Recovery in California’s Comprehensive Community Mental Health Programs.” American Journal of Public Health, 103(10):e89-95. PMID: 23865662. PMID: 23865662.

Yoon J. (2011). “Effect of Increased Private Share of Psychiatric Resources on Jail Population Growth: Evidence from the United States.” Social Science & Medicine, 72 (4): 447-455. PMID: 20801574.

Yoon J, Bruckner TA. (2009). “Does Deinstitutionalization Increase Suicide?” Health Services Research, 44 (4): 1385-1405. PMID: 19500164.