Article reprinted from "The Pink Sheet" DAILY February 10, 2009
Details of responsibilities for seven connected health care policy pros are still being worked out. Read more...
Article reprinted from "The Pink Sheet" DAILY February 10, 2009
A number of top staff members newly installed at HHS bring ties to key health policy figures or committees in the Senate.
An internal memo circulated Jan. 26 by HHS Chief of Staff Mark Childress announces several additions to the department. The announcement quickly followed the selection of William Corr as deputy secretary at HHS.
The memo does not identify titles or areas of responsibility for most of the new staff members; those details apparently are still being worked out.
Childress' announcement went out before Tom Daschle's Feb. 3 withdrawal from the confirmation process as HHS secretary.
It is unclear what impact that will have on organizational plans previously put in place - whether a different secretary-designate will want to make changes. However, many of the new staff have connections to other key health figures in Washington that will recommend them to their new boss.
For example, many are former staffers to the Senate Health, Education Labor and Pensions Committee under Sen. Ted Kennedy, D-Mass., as is Childress, who was general counsel for the panel. A number of them also were members of the Obama transition team on health care. The appointments are as follows:
Dora Hughes: a physician who was health policy advisor to President Obama while he was in the Senate. She also served as Sen. Kennedy's deputy director for health on the HELP committee. Prior to that, she was a senior program officer at The Commonwealth Fund in New York.
Andrea Palm: worked on the HELP Committee. As health policy advisor to then-Sen. Hillary Clinton, she handled Clinton's health committee work as well as her health agenda more broadly. Palm's work focused on the implementation of Medicare Part D and legislation on health IT.
Jonathan Blum: served on the professional staff of the Senate Finance Committee, chaired by Max Baucus, D-Mont. He was a lead advisor on Medicare drug and health plan issues and played a key role in the Medicare Modernization Act.
Prior to that, he was an analyst at the Office of Management and Budget, specializing in Medicare payment policy for providers and health plans and on Medicare reform options. Blum most recently was a VP at the Avalere Health consultancy, working on Medicare and Medicaid policy development and commercial strategies.
Elizabeth Engel: was policy advisor for health care, education and welfare issues at the Democratic Policy Committee in the Senate. Before that, she was medical center counsel at Stanford University. She also worked as director of legal and regulatory affairs at iScribe, an e-prescribing company.
Neera Tanden: legislative director for Clinton in the Senate. She was domestic policy advisor to the Clinton presidential campaign from 2006 to 2008 and then moved to the same role at the Obama campaign. Tanden also worked at the Center for American Progress as senior VP for academic affairs.
Jenny Backus: Democratic strategist who served as an advisor to the Obama campaign. Backus assumed the role of spokesperson for Daschle when he announced his withdrawal from consideration as secretary.
Justine Sarver: a former Obama campaign staffer, Sarver will act as White House liaison for HHS. As such, she will work with heads of divisions within HHS on staffing and personnel. Sarver previously was organizing director of the ACLU of Northern California and VP of Planned Parenthood affiliates of California.
Health Reform Office policy director
Childress' memo also notes an addition to the White House Office of Health Reform: Lauren Aronson has been named policy director of the new office, which was to have been headed by Daschle.
Aronson is a former health policy aide to then-Rep. Rahm Emanuel, now White House chief of staff. She also served as health policy staffer to the House Democratic Caucus.
-Cathy Kelly
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