2026 Signature Series Congressional Briefing

Michael leads AAF’s health care research and analysis portfolio, including prescription drug pricing policy, Medicare and Medicaid payment rules, the Food and Drug Administration, and employer-sponsored insurance markets. His research and analysis have appeared in numerous publications.

Prior to joining AAF, Michael worked in both the public and private sectors on a broad array of health and human services policy. He has provided in-house and multi-client health policy leadership in the private sector, including on policy development, regulatory affairs, and strategic capital planning, for hospitals, payers, investment firms, and other stakeholders. Michael also worked at the Department of Health and Human Services on issues related to drug pricing and pharmaceutical manufacturing, public health, competition and transparency, and innovation policy. His purview has also included health IT interoperability and data exchange, HIPAA, and public health informatics.

Michael holds a master’s degree in biohazardous threat agents and emerging infectious diseases from Georgetown University, a master’s degree in economics from American University, and a bachelor’s degree in biology from the University of Toledo.

Brett Baker is a Partner at The Nickles Group. His extensive legislative and policy experience have earned him the respect and trust of policymakers across the political spectrum that helps clients achieve their goals. He spent over a decade on Capitol Hill working on many of the significant Medicare bills that passed Congress during that time. He has shaped health care policies that have touched every sector of the health care industry. Brett was integral in the development of legislation that provided relief to physicians from Medicare Sustainable Growth Rate (SGR) formula payment reductions, including the transformative Medicare Access and CHIP Reauthorization Act (MACRA) enacted in 2015. He also played a leading role in shaping the prescription pricing policy debate and COVID-19 relief laws enacted during the first year of the pandemic.

Brett worked for the Senate Finance Committee where he held key health staff positions under Chairman Orrin Hatch (R-UT), Chairman Chuck Grassley (R-IA), and Ranking Member Mike Crapo (R-ID). Prior to his service in the Senate, Brett was a professional staff member for the House Ways and Means Committee under Chairman Dave Camp (R-MI) and Paul Ryan (R-WI), where he focused on physician payment policy and other Medicare Part B issues.

Brett began his career at the American College of Physicians in Washington, D.C.

He has a Bachelor of Science degree from the Pennsylvania State University.

Prior to entering the private sector, Elizabeth spent nearly two decades in the White House
and Congress, specializing in health care policy and strategy. Most recently, Elizabeth
served in the White House as a Special Assistant to the President in the Office of
Legislative Affairs where she worked with her colleagues to successfully promote and pass
The American Rescue Plan (ARP), The Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA), and The
Inflation Reduction Act (IRA).

Prior to the White House, she served as Chief Health Advisor to Chairman Ron Wyden (D
OR) and the Senate Finance Committee where she oversaw the development and
execution of key health care priorities within the Committee’s extensive health care
jurisdiction of Medicare, Medicaid, and key components of the Affordable Care Act. In this
role, Elizabeth was instrumental in developing the arguments and strategy used to
successfully prevent repeal of the Affordable Care Act and spearheaded negotiations with
the Committee Republicans on prescription drug pricing reform that later became the
basis for policies passed in the Inflation Reduction Act.

During her tenure on Capitol Hill, she also negotiated several other major health care bills
including the repeal of the Sustainable Growth Rate, the longest CHIP extension since the
program’s enactment, and chronic care reform, among others. Elizabeth is also a Senior
Policy Fellow at Yale University’s Tobin Center for Economic Policy.

Elizabeth received her B.A. from the University of Maryland and her M.A. in Government
from Johns Hopkins University.

Michael Chernew, PhD, is the Leonard D. Schaeffer Professor of Health Care Policy and Director of the
Healthcare Markets and Regulation Lab at Harvard Medical School. His research focuses on improving
the healthcare system through improvements to benefit designs, payment models, and regulation of
both private and public health care markets, including the Medicare Advantage program. Michael served
as Chair of the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission (MedPAC) and vice chair of the Massachusetts
Health Connector Board. He has served on several advisory panels for CMS and is a member of the
Congressional Budget Office’s Panel of Health Advisors. Michael holds a PhD in economics from Stanford
University and has received multiple awards for his work in healthcare policy.

Kristen's work focuses on implementing new laws through the rulemaking process, as well as working with relevant agency officials to develop and improve agency guidance.

Kristen recently served as Principal of the Health Industry Policy and Regulatory Practice Group at a law and lobbying firm where she provided representation for hospital systems, physician practices, medical device companies, digital health companies and trade associations. She has extensive experience in providing analysis and counsel related to government healthcare payment programs under Medicare and Medicaid. She also has extensive knowledge of navigating the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC) and others.

Previously, Kristen provided legislative and regulatory legal analysis as a senior attorney for the American Medical Association.