GAO Names Appointees Medicaid and CHIP Payment and Access Commission

The U.S. Government Accountability Office has announced the appointment of 17 members to the new Medicaid and CHIP Payment and Access Commission, according to a GAO news release.

MACPAC was established by the Children's Health Insurance Program Reauthorization Act of 2009 to review Medicaid and CHIP access and payment policies and to advise Congress on issues affecting Medicaid and CHIP, according to the release.

Commissioners were assigned to intended staggered terms of one, two or three years. They may then be appointed to subsequent three-year terms, according to the release.

Commissioners whose first term will expire in December 2012 include:

• Diane Rowland, ScD, executive vice president of Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation and executive director of Kaiser Commission on Medicaid and the Uninsured. Dr. Rowland will serve as chair of MACPAC.
• Donna Checkett, MPA, MSW, senior vice president of Medicaid business development for Aetna.
• Patricia Gabow, MD, CEO of Denver Health and Hospital Authority.
• Mark Hoyt, FSA, MAAA, national practice leader of the Government Human Services Consulting Specialty Group for Mercer.
• Trish Riley, MS, director of Maine Governor's Office of Health Policy and Finance.
• Steven Waldren, MD, MS, director of Center for Health Information Technology for the American Academy of Family Physicians.

Commissioners whose first term will expire in December 2011 include:

• David Sundwall, MD, executive director of the Utah Department of Health and Commissioner of Health for the State of Utah. Dr. Sundwall will serve as vice chair of MACPAC.
• Richard Chambers, CEO of CalOptima.
• Burton Edelstein, DDS, MPH, professor of clinical dentistry for the College of Dental Medicine and Clinical Health Policy and Management at the Mailman School of Public Health at Columbia University.
• Denise Henning, CNM, MSN, service line leader for women's health for Collier Health Services.
• Judith Moore, senior fellow of National Health Policy Forum at George Washington University.
• Robin Smith, foster and adoptive parent of special needs children covered by Medicaid.

Commissioners whose first term will expire in December 2010 include:

• Sharon L. Carte, MS, executive director of the West Virginia Children's Health Insurance Program.
• Andrea Cohen, JD, director of health services for the NYC Office of the Deputy Mayor for Health and Human Services.
• Herman Gray, MD, MBA, president of Children's Hospital of Michigan and senior vice president of Detroit Medical Center.
• Norma Martinez Rogers, PhD, RN, FAAN, professor of the department of family nursing at the University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio.
• Sara Rosenbaum, JD, chair, department of health policy and Harold and Jane Hirsh Professor of Health Law and Policy at the GWU School of Public Health and Health Services, and professor of healthcare sciences and GWU's School of Medicine and Health Sciences.

Brief biographies of new commission members are available at the GAO's Web site.

Read the release on the new Medicaid and CHIP Payment and Access Commission.