Whose Experience? Centering Patients in Payment Policy

July 22, 2026
1:05 pm-

1:30 pm

Speakers:

  • Moderator: Claire Sheahan, M.Sc., President and CEO, Alliance for Health Policy (Moderator)
  • Sarah Coombs, MPH, Director for Health System Transformation, National Partnership for Women & Families

Speakers

Claire Sheahan, M.Sc.

President and CEO, Alliance for Health Policy
Claire is the Chief Executive Officer at the Alliance for Health Policy. She is a dynamic executive with more than 25 years of experience effectively engaging others to catalyze change in health care and health policy.  Claire has served in leadership roles in associations, corporations,  consulting and communications firms, including GMMB, the Blue Cross Blue Shield Association, Fleishman Hillard, the Generic Pharmaceutical Association (now AAM), Avalere, Alexion Pharmaceuticals, and others. In these roles, she has managed effective educational and engagement campaigns, introduced new capabilities, products and services, established novel cross-functional teams, and successfully achieved gains in reputational status, growth and audience impact.  In her career, she has worked for organizations across the spectrum in health care ranging from scientific discovery to public health to patient advocacy.  These include non-profits like the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, and National Health Council; medical leaders like the American Academy of Family Physicians, the International Society for Stem Cell Research and Mayo Clinic; and companies like Biogen, Cigna, and Siemens Health.  Claire is a graduate of the University of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana, where she served a semester as a research assistant to a member of UK parliament, and a co-founder of the campus sketch comedy troupe. She also holds an MSc. with Distinction from the London School of Economics in Media and Communications, where her dissertation focused on the construct of public opinion within the halls of the U.S. Congress. Claire also served as an adjunct professor at Johns Hopkins University, teaching students in the Communications MA program. She is the mother of two children, a cancer survivor, and serves as a Director on the Fairfax Library Foundation Board.

Sarah Coombs, MPH

Director for Health System Transformation, National Partnership for Women & Families
Sarah Coombs is director for health system transformation at the National Partnership for Women & Families, where she oversees policy and programmatic work on health access, coverage, and care delivery transformation issues, including health equity and payment reform. Prior to her work at the National Partnership, Sarah worked in the Office of the Secretary at the Department of Health and Human Services, where she contributed to the policy development and implementation of the Affordable Care Act and delivery system transformation initiatives. Before that, Sarah worked at the Office of Management and Budget, where she coordinated the Health Division’s development of the federal health budget and oversight responsibilities of Medicare, Medicaid, and Marketplace coverage. Sarah received her MPH from the Milken Institute School of Public Health at George Washington University and her bachelor’s in Government & Legal Studies and French from Bowdoin College.

Experts

Kirsten Sloan

Board Member

Brandon G. Wilson, DrPH, MHA

Senior Director of Center for Community Engagement in Health Innovation, Community Catalyst

Kimberly Beer

Senior Vice President, Policy and External Affairs, National Health Council

Kathryn Berge

Senior Director, Federal Affairs, Blood Cancer United

Lisa Hunter

Senior Director, Federal Policy & Advocacy, United States of Care

Anna Hyde

Vice President, Advocacy and Access, Arthritis Foundation

HoangMai  Pham, M.D., MPH

President and Chief Executive Officer, Institute for Exceptional Care

Leigh Purvis, MPA

Prescription Drug Policy Principal, AARP