Desai was previously a Seidman Fellow in the Department of Health Care Policy at Harvard Medical School. Her research investigates the role of government policy in determining firm behavior and market structure in the health care delivery system. She is especially interested in circumstances in which provider’s incentives could conflict with patient interests. In a second stream of work, she investigates the role of information in health care decision-making. She has conducted several studies on how offering health care service price information affects patients’ choice of health care provider.