GAO Makes MedPAC Appointments
WASHINGTON (May 28, 2024) Gene L. Dodaro, Comptroller General of the United States and head of the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO), today announced the appointment of two new members to the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission (MedPAC). He also reappointed four current members. MedPAC advises Congress on payments to providers in Medicare’s traditional fee-for-service program and to health plans participating in the Medicare Advantage program.
“MedPAC provides critical information to Congress on the key issues related to the Medicare program,” Dodaro said. “I am pleased to announce these latest appointments and am confident today’s highly qualified members will provide valuable contributions to MedPAC’s important work.”
The newly appointed members are Paul Casale, MD, MPH, Executive Director of NewYork Quality Care and Professor of Population Health Sciences and Clinical Medicine at Weill Cornell Medicine, and Joshua Liao, MD, MSc, Professor of Medicine and Division Chief of General Internal Medicine at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center and faculty at the University of Texas Southwestern O’Donnell School of Public Health. Their terms will expire in April 2027.
The reappointed members are Lynn Barr, MPH, Founder of the Barr-Campbell Family Foundation; Cheryl Damberg, PhD, Director of the RAND Center of Excellence on Health System Performance and principal senior economist at the RAND Corporation; Stacie Dusetzina, PhD, Professor of health policy and an Ingram Professor of Cancer Research at Vanderbilt University Medical Center; and Gina Upchurch, RPh, MPH, Founder and Executive Director of Senior PharmAssist. Their terms will also expire in April 2027. Current members whose terms expired in April 2024 are Jonathan Jaffery, MD, MS, MMM; and Jaewon Ryu, MD, JD.
Congress established MedPAC in 1997 to analyze access to care, cost and quality of care, and other key issues affecting Medicare. The Comptroller General is responsible for naming new commission members.
For more information about MedPAC, contact Paul Masi, MedPAC’s executive director, at (202) 220-3700. Other calls should be directed to Chuck Young in GAO’s Office of Public Affairs at (202) 512-4800.
Brief biographies of the new commission members follow:
Paul N. Casale, MD, MPH, is a Professor of Population Health Sciences in the Division of Health Policy and Economics and a Professor of Clinical Medicine in the Division of Cardiology at Weill Cornell Medical College, as well as an Adjunct Professor of Medicine at Columbia University Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons. He has been the Executive Director of NewYork Quality Care, an accountable care organization that is a joint initiative of NewYork-Presbyterian, Columbia University, and Weill Cornell Medical College for the past eight years. Dr. Casale has served on many national committees including the chair of the Physician-Focused Payment Model Technical Advisory Committee (PTAC) and a member of the Advisory Council of the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality. Dr. Casale’s research focuses on clinical cardiology, value-based care, and payment reform. He has held multiple leadership positions in various healthcare settings including a rural private practice, a regional health system, and a large urban academic medical center. Dr. Casale earned his medical degree from Weill Cornell Medical College and his Master of Public Health from Harvard School of Public Health.
Joshua Liao, MD, MSc, is Professor of Medicine and Division Chief of General Internal Medicine at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center. He also leads the Program on Policy Evaluation and Learning, holds the Walter Family Distinguished Chair in Internal Medicine, and serves on faculty at the University of Texas Southwestern O’Donnell School of Public Health. In addition, Dr. Liao is an Adjunct Senior Fellow at the Leonard Davis Institute of Health Economics at the University of Pennsylvania. He is an internal medicine physician with research and evaluation interests in health care payment, care delivery redesign, and practice transformation. Dr. Liao earned his medical degree from Baylor College of Medicine, completed his clinical training at Brigham & Women’s Hospital/Harvard Medical School, and obtained his Master of Science in health policy research from University of Pennsylvania.
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