Dr. William Hsiao, a School of Public Health (SPH) professor and ardent critic of inefficiencies in the US health care industry, offers similar critiques of medicine in Hong Kong in a report to be released today.

The report, segments of which have already been leaked to the press, is especially critical of private doctors in Hong Kong--who he said are the highest paid in the world, earning an average of $3 million per year.

Hsiao, Li professor of economic development and health at the SPH, is now in Hong Kong giving lectures and talking to Chinese government officials to explain and defend his assessment.

Hsiao first attained prominence when his criticisms of Medicare in 1986 led to its reform and brought Health Maintenance Organizations to the forefront of the medical industry.

In papers and books on the topic, Hsiao said Medicare and the health care industry in general gave doctors little motivation to use less expensive means of treatment when more costly ones were available.

When Congress reformed the system, Hsiao was consulted heavily and many of his suggestions became actual policy.

In addition to this work, Hsiao has assisted many emerging nations in developing methods to provide care to poor, rural populations.

However, his current area of expertise is in East Asia, where he is collaborating with UNICEF on a country-wide study of health care for the 100 million poor Chinese.

The Hong Kong government--the territory, long a British colony, reverted back to Chinese possession in 1997--commissioned Hsiao to review its health care system in late 1997. The commission was made in response to rising medical costs.