Appointments Announced To Medicare Payment Advisory Commission
WASHINGTON, DC (May 8, 2009) - Gene L. Dodaro, Acting Comptroller General of the United States and head of the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO), today announced the appointment of two new members and the reappointment of five existing members to the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission (MedPAC). The official announcement will be published in the Federal Register.
"The delivery and financing of health care remain a serious concern for policymakers. In government, the Medicare program faces particularly difficult challenges. I am pleased to report that, once again, we had many qualified applicants for MedPAC. The two new individuals chosen will bring impressive credentials and valuable experiences and insights to the commission," said Dodaro. The newly appointed members are Robert A. Berenson, M.D., F.A.C.P., senior fellow at the Urban Institute and Herb B. Kuhn, an independent health care consultant specializing in Medicare and Medicaid issues. Dr. Berenson is appointed to a three-year term through 2012. Mr. Kuhn is appointed to complete the remaining year of Jack Ebeler's three-year term that began in 2007. Ebeler resigned from MedPAC in March.
MedPAC was established by Congress 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 2012 are Mitra Behroozi, J.D., executive director of 1199 SEIU Benefit and Pension Funds; Karen R. Borman, M.D., professor of surgery at the University of Central Florida College of Medicine; Ronald D. Castellanos, M.D., a urologist at Southwest Florida Urologic Associates; Glenn M. Hackbarth, J.D., (chair); and Bruce Stuart, Ph.D., a 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, M.H.S.A., executive vice president and chief operating officer of Rush University Medical Center in Chicago, Illinois; Michael Chernew, Ph.D., professor of health care policy at Harvard Medical School in Boston, Massachusetts; Jennie Chin Hansen, R.N., M.S.N., F.A.A.N., president of AARP; Nancy M. Kane, D.B.A., 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., M.H.S.A., chief operating officer of First Diversity Management Group and managing partner of First Diversity Healthcare Group.
Commissioners whose terms will expire in 2010 are John M. Bertko, F.S.A., M.A.A.A., adjunct staff member at RAND and a visiting scholar at the Brookings Institution; Francis J. Crosson, M.D., (vice-chair), associate executive director of The Permanente Medical Group and senior fellow of the Kaiser Permanente Institute for Health Policy; Thomas M. Dean, M.D., a family physician in Wessington Springs, South Dakota; Arnold Milstein, M.D., M.P.H., medical director at the Pacific Business Group on Health, and William J. Scanlon, Ph.D., a health policy consultant and senior policy advisor with Health Policy R&D.
Below are brief biographies of new commission members. For more information about MedPAC, contact Mark Miller, MedPAC's executive director, at (202) 220-3700. All other calls should be directed to GAO's Office of Public Affairs at (202) 512-4800.
Robert A. Berenson, M.D., F.A.C.P., is an Institute Fellow at the Urban Institute. From 1998 to 2000 he served as Director of the Center for Health Plans and Providers in the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services overseeing provider payment policy and managed care contracting. Dr. Berenson was founder and medical director of the National Capital Preferred Provider Organization from 1986 to 1996. He served as an Assistant Director of the White House Domestic Policy staff in the Carter Administration. Dr. Berenson has authored many articles in nationally recognized journals and several books, and he most recently co-authored Medicare Payment Policy and the Shaping of U.S. Health Care. Dr. Berenson is a board-certified internist who practiced for twenty years. He received his B.A. from Brandeis University and his M.D. from the Mount Sinai School of Medicine.
Herb B. Kuhn is an independent health care consultant specializing in Medicare and Medicaid issues. He served in multiple roles at the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services during the Bush Administration including as Deputy Administrator from 2006 to 2009 and as Director of the Center for Medicare Management from 2004 to 2006. From 2000 to 2004 Mr. Kuhn served as corporate vice president for the Premier Hospital Alliance, serving 1,600 institutional members. From 1987 through 2000, Mr. Kuhn worked in Federal Relations with the American Hospital Association. In 2008 Mr. Kuhn was named by Modern Healthcare Magazine as one of the 100 Most Powerful People in Healthcare in the United States. Mr. Kuhn received his Bachelor of Science in Business from Emporia State University.
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