WASHINGTON–Gene L. Dodaro, Acting Comptroller General of the United States and head of the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO), announced May 14 the appointment of four new members and the reappointment of two existing members to the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission (MedPAC).
“Policymakers continue to rely on MedPAC’s expert advice, and with the passage of health care reform, MedPAC’s role will continue to be particularly important. I am pleased to report that, once again, we had many qualified applicants for MedPAC. The four new individuals selected will bring impressive credentials and valuable experience and insights to the commission,” said Dodaro.
The newly appointed members are: Scott Armstrong, president and CEO, Group Health Cooperative; Katherine Baicker, PhD, Professor of Health Economics, Department of Health Policy and Management, Harvard School of Public Health; Mary Naylor, PhD, RN, FAAN, Professor of Gerontology and Director of the New Courtland Center for Transitions and Health, University of Pennsylvania, School of Nursing; and Cori Uccello, FSA, MAAA, FCA, Senior Health Fellow of the American Academy of Actuaries. Their terms will expire in 2013.
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 members, whose terms will expire in April 2013, are Thomas M. Dean, MD, a family physician in Wessington Springs, South Dakota and Herb B. Kuhn, President and CEO of the Missouri Hospital Association.
Commissioners whose terms will expire in 2012 are Mitra Behroozi, JD, executive of 1199 SEIU Benefit and Pension Funds; Robert A. Berenson, MD, FACP (vice chair), Fellow at the Urban Institute; Karen R. Borman, MD, General Surgery Residency Program Director and an attending physician, Abington Memorial Hospital, Pennsylvania; Ronald D. Castellanos, MD, a urologist at Southwest Florida Urologic Associates; Glenn M. Hackbarth, JD (chair); and Bruce Stuart, PhD, Professor and Executive Director of the Peter Lamy Center on Drug Therapy and Aging at the University of Maryland Baltimore.
Commissioners whose terms will expire in 2011 are Peter W. Butler, MHSA, Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer of Rush University Medical Center in Chicago, Illinois; Michael Chernew, PhD, Professor of Health Care Policy at Harvard Medical School in Boston, Massachusetts; Jennie Chin Hansen, RN, MSN, FAAN, President of AARP; Nancy M. Kane, DBA, Professor of Management in the Department of Health Policy and Management and Associate Dean of Education at the Harvard School of Public Health; and George N. Miller, Jr., MHSA, Chief Operating Officer of First Diversity Management Group and managing partner of First Diversity Healthcare Group.
