Cathy A. Cowan is an American economist and social scientist. She earned her bachelor's degree from Indiana University in business and went on to attain a master's degree in business administration from the University of South Carolina. After completing her education, she worked in the 1990s as a program analyst for the Health Care Financing Administration, which later became the National Health Statistics Group at the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS). Her research focuses on health care expenditure in the United States, comparing the trends of government, business and personal spending patterns. Besides issuing quarterly and annual reviews of the costs of health care, Cowan researches disparity of coverage and cost between US and international markets. She serves as chair of the Global Health Expenditure Database's Technical Advisory Group to the World Health Organization. Since 2014, she has been on the Thomson Reuters' list of most cited scientists.
Levit, Katherine; Lazenby, Helen; Cowan, Cathy; Letsch, Suzanne (1996). "National Health Expenditures". Health care financing review. Washington, D.C: Dept. of Health, Education, and Welfare, Health Care Financing Administration. 13: 29–54. Cowan, Cathy A; Braden, Bradley R; McDonnell, Patricia A; Sivarajan, Lekha (1996). "Data View: Business, Households, and Government: Health Spending, 1994". Health care financing review. Washington, D.C: Dept. of Health, Education, and Welfare, Health Care Financing Administration. 17 (4): 157. Cowan, Cathy A; Braden, Bradley R (1997). "Business, Households, and Government: Health Care Spending, 1995". Health care financing review. Washington, D.C: Dept. of Health, Education, and Welfare, Health Care Financing Administration. 18 (3): 195. Cowan, Cathy A; McDonnell, Patricia A; Levit, Katharine R; Zezzal, Mark A (2002). "Burden of Health Care Costs: Businesses, Households, and Governments, 1987-2000". 23 (3). Washington, D.C: Dept. of Health, Education, and Welfare, Health Care Financing Administration: 131. Sing, Merrile; Banthin, Jessica S.; Selden, Thomas M.; Cowan, Cathy A.; Keehan, Sean P. A. (2006). "Reconciling Medical Expenditure Estimates from the MEPS and NHEA, 2002". 28 (1). Washington, D.C: Dept. of Health, Education, and Welfare, Health Care Financing Administration: 25–40. Catlin, MK; Poisal, JA; Cowan, CA (January 2015). "Out-of-pocket health care expenditures, by insurance status, 2007-10". Health Affairs. Bethesda, Maryland: Millwood. 34: 1111–1116. doi:10.1377/hlthaff.2014.0422. 