Appointments Announced to Medicare Payment Advisory Commission

WASHINGTON, DC (May 24, 2012) – Gene L. Dodaro, Comptroller General of the United States and head of the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO), today announced the appointment of five new members and the reappointment of one existing member to the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission (MedPAC). The official announcement will be published in the Federal Register.

“Medicare is one of the federal government’s most significant responsibilities, and MedPAC has a significant role in ensuring responsible stewardship of this important program. We were fortunate to be able to consider many highly qualified applicants. The five new individuals selected this year bring impressive credentials to the commission,” said Dodaro.

The newly appointed members are Alice Coombs, MD, Critical Care Specialist and Anesthesiologist, South Shore Hospital, Weymouth, MA; Jack Hoadley, Ph.D., Research Professor, Health Policy Institute, Georgetown University, Washington, DC; David Nerenz, Ph.D., Director of the Center for Health Policy and Health Services Research, Henry Ford Health System, Detroit, MI; Rita Redberg, MD, Professor, Clinical Medicine, University of California at San Francisco Medical Center, San Francisco, CA; and Craig Samitt, MD, President and Chief Executive Officer, Dean Health System, Inc., Madison, WI. Their terms will expire in April 2015.

Congress established MedPAC in 1997 to analyze access to care, cost and quality of care, and other key issues affecting Medicare. MedPAC advises Congress on payments to health plans participating in the Medicare Advantage program and providers in Medicare’s traditional fee-for-service programs. The Comptroller General is responsible for naming new commission members.

The reappointed member, whose term will expire in April 2015, is Glenn M. Hackbarth, JD (Chair).

Commissioners whose terms will expire in April 2014 are Peter W. Butler, MHSA, Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer of Rush University Medical Center; Michael Chernew, PhD, (Vice Chair) Professor of Health Care Policy at Harvard Medical School; Willis D. Gradison, Jr., MBA, a Scholar in Residence in the Health Sector Management Program at Duke University’s Fuqua School of Business; William J. Hall, MD, Director of the Center for Healthy Aging at the University of Rochester School of Medicine; and George N. Miller, Jr., MHSA, Chief Executive Officer, Okmulgee Memorial Hospital, Okmulgee, OK.

Commissioners whose terms will expire in April 2013 are Scott Armstrong, President and Chief Executive Officer of Group Health Cooperative; Katherine Baicker, PhD, Professor of Health Economics in the Department of Health Policy and Management at the Harvard School of Public Health; Thomas M. Dean, MD, practicing physician, Horizon Health Care; Herb B. Kuhn, President and CEO, Missouri Hospital Association; Mary Naylor, PhD, RN, Marian S.Ware Professor in Gerontology and Director of the NewCourtland Center for Transitions and Health at the University of Pennsylvania School of Nursing; and Cori Uccello, FSA, Senior Health Fellow of the American Academy of Actuaries.

Below are brief biographies of the new commission members. For more information about MedPAC, contact Mark Miller, MedPAC’s executive director, at (202) 220-3700. Other calls should be directed to GAO’s Office of Public Affairs at (202) 512-4800.

Alice Coombs, MD is a Critical Care Specialist and an Anesthesiologist at Milton Hospital and South Shore Hospital in Weymouth, MA. She is board certified in Internal Medicine, Anesthesiology and Critical Care Medicine. Dr. Coombs is Past President of the Massachusetts Medical Society (MMS) and a member of MMS’ Committee on Ethnic Diversity. She chaired the Committee on Workforce Diversity that is part of the American Medical Association’s (AMA) Commission to Eliminate Health Care Disparities and on the Governing Council for the AMA Minority Affairs Consortium and the AMA Initiative to Transform Medical Education. She helped to establish the New England Medical Association, a state society of the National Medical Association which represents minority physicians and health professionals. Dr Coombs has served as a member and Vice Chair of the Massachusetts Board of Registration in Medicine Patient Care Assessment Committee. In addition, she was a member of the Massachusetts Special Commission on the Health Care Payment System.

Jack Hoadley, Ph.D., is Research Professor at the Health Policy Institute of Georgetown University in

Washington, DC. Dr. Hoadley previously served as Director of the Division of Health Financing Policy for The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Office of the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation; as Principal Policy Analyst at MedPAC and its predecessor organization, the Physician Payment Review Commission; and as Senior Research Associate with the National Health Policy Forum. His research expertise includes health financing for Medicare, Medicaid, and CHIP; pharmaco-economics and prescription drug benefit programs; and private sector insurance coverage. Dr. Hoadley has published widely on health care financing and pharmaco-economics, and has provided testimony to government panels.

David Nerenz, Ph.D., is Director of the Center for Health Policy and Health Services Research at the Henry Ford Health System in Detroit, MI, as well as Director of Outcomes Research at the Neuroscience Institute and Vice-Chair for Research in the Department of Neurosurgery at Henry Ford Hospital. He serves on the National Committee for Quality Assurance's Culturally and Linguistically Appropriate Services (CLAS) Workgroup and on the Accountable Care Organization (ACO) Technical Advisory Committee of the American Medical Group Association. Dr. Nerenz has served in various roles with the Institute of Medicine, including as Chair of the Committee on Leading Health Indicators for Healthy People, 2020. He serves on the editorial boards of Population Health Management and Medicare Care Research and Review.

Rita Redberg, MD, is Professor of Clinical Medicine at the University of California at San Francisco (UCSF) Medical Center, in San Francisco, CA. A Cardiologist, Dr. Redberg is also Director of Women’s Cardiovascular Services at the UCSF National Center of Excellence in Women’s Health and Adjunct Associate at Stanford University’s Center for Health Policy/Center for Primary Care and Outcomes Research. She is Editor of the Archives of Internal Medicine and a panel member on CMS’s Medicare Evidence Development and Coverage Advisory Committee. Dr. Redberg has served in numerous positions on committees of the American Heart Association and the American College of Cardiology, and was a Robert Wood Johnson Health Policy Fellow.

Craig Samitt, MD, MBA, is President and Chief Executive Officer of Dean Health System, Inc., in Madison, WI. He is also a Chair-emeritus of the Group Practice Improvement Network and Co-Chair of the Patient Centered Primary Care Collaborative Center for Accountable Care, a coalition of 900 members, including major employers, consumer groups, patient quality organizations, health plans, and providers. Dr. Samitt previously served as an advisory and faculty member of the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services’ Accountable Care Organization (ACO) Accelerated Development Learning Sessions. His prior positions include Chief Operating Officer of the Fallon Clinic in Massachusetts, Senior Vice President at Harvard Pilgrim Health Care, and Chairman of Medicine and Executive Director of the Kenmore Center at Harvard Vanguard Medical Associates.

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