GAO Makes MedPAC Appointments
WASHINGTON, DC (May 31, 2023) – Gene L. Dodaro, Comptroller General of the United States and head of the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO), today announced the appointment of three new members to the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission (MedPAC), as well as the reappointment of three current members, one of whom will continue to serve as Chair.
“MedPAC plays a crucial role in advising Congress on the critical issues facing the Medicare program,” Dodaro said. “I am pleased to announce these latest appointments and am confident today’s highly qualified members will add great value to the commission.”
The newly appointed members, whose terms begin in May 2023 and will expire in April 2026, are R. Tamara Konetzka, PhD, the Louis Block Professor of Public Health Sciences at the University of Chicago; and Brian Miller, MD, MBA, MPH, Assistant Professor of Medicine at Johns Hopkins University. In addition, Gina Upchurch, RPh, MPH, Founder and Executive Director of Senior PharmAssist, was newly appointed to serve out the remaining term of Marjorie Ginsburg (who recently resigned), which will expire in 2024.
The reappointed members, whose terms will expire in April 2026, are Michael E. Chernew, PhD, Leonard D. Schaeffer Professor of Health Care Policy in the Department of Health Care Policy at Harvard Medical School; Betty Rambur, PhD, RN, FAAN, Routhier Endowed Chair for Practice and Professor of Nursing in the College of Nursing at the University of Rhode Island; and Wayne Riley, MD, MPH, MBA, President and Professor of Internal Medicine and of Health Policy and Management of the State University of New York Downstate Health Sciences University. Dr. Chernew will continue to serve as Chair. Members whose terms expired in April 2023 are David Grabowski, PhD, and Dana Gelb Safran, ScD.
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 providers in Medicare’s traditional fee-for-service program and to health plans participating in the Medicare Advantage program. The Comptroller General is responsible for naming new commission members.
Brief biographies of the new commission members follow:
R. Tamara Konetzka, PhD, is the Louis Block Professor of Public Health Sciences at the University of Chicago, with a secondary appointment in the Department of Medicine, Section of Geriatrics and Palliative Medicine. She is also the Co-Director of the Health Policy Data Lab and an Associate Director of the Center for Chronic Disease Research and Policy at the University of Chicago and serves as the Editor-in-Chief of Medical Care Research and Review. Her research addresses the incentives created by health care payment policy on the quality of post-acute and long-term care, including the effects of public reporting of quality and the costs and benefits of home-based care. She received her PhD in health economics from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and completed a post-doctoral fellowship at the University of Pennsylvania and the Philadelphia VA.
Brian Miller, MD, MBA, MPH, is an Assistant Professor of Medicine at Johns Hopkins University and a nonresident fellow at the American Enterprise Institute. His research focuses on the Medicare Advantage program, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s regulation of pharmaceutical products and medical devices, and competition in health care markets. His research leverages his previous experience at the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, the Food and Drug Administration, and the Federal Trade Commission. A practicing hospital medicine physician, Dr. Miller earned his medical degree from Northwestern University, a Master of Public Health from the Johns Hopkins University, and a Master of Business Administration from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
Gina Upchurch, RPh, MPH, is the Founder and Executive Director of Senior PharmAssist, a nonprofit organization that assists older adults with obtaining and managing medication and provides Medicare benefits counseling and tailored community referrals in Durham, North Carolina. Ms. Upchurch is a registered pharmacist and has participated in various committees at the state and national level, such as the American Geriatrics Society Public Policy Committee and several working groups for the North Carolina Institute of Medicine. She received her Bachelor of Science in Pharmacy and her Master of Public Health from University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
For more information about MedPAC, contact James Mathews, 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.
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