Michael Chernew, Ph.D., is the Leonard D. Schaeffer Professor of Health Care Policy and the Director of the Healthcare Markets and Regulation (HMR) Lab in the Department of Health Care Policy at Harvard Medical School. Dr. Chernew’s research examines several areas related to improving the health care system including studies of novel benefit designs, Medicare Advantage, alternative payment models, low value care and the causes and consequences of rising health care spending.
Dr. Chernew is currently serving as the Chair of Medicare Payment Advisory Commission (MedPAC) while previously serving as the Vice Chair from 2012-2014 and a Member from 2008-2012. In 2000, 2004 and 2010, he served on technical advisory panels for the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) that reviewed the assumptions used by Medicare actuaries to assess the financial status of Medicare trust funds. He is a member of the Congressional Budget Office’s Panel of Health Advisors and Vice Chair of the Massachusetts Health Connector Board. Dr. Chernew is a member of the National Academy of Sciences, a research associate at the National Bureau of Economic Research and a senior Visiting Fellow at MITRE. He is currently a co-editor of the American Journal of Managed Care.
Dr. Chernew earned his undergraduate degree from the University of Pennsylvania and his PhD in economics from Stanford University. In 1998, he was awarded the John D. Thompson Prize for Young Investigators by the Association of University Programs in Public Health. In 1999, he received the Alice S. Hersh Young Investigator Award from the Association of Health Services Research.
Contact: chernew@hcp.med.harvard.edu
Hoangmai (Mai) H. Pham, M.D., MPH, is president of the Institute for Exceptional Care, a new non-profit organization dedicated to helping people with intellectual and developmental disabilities thrive. Dr. Pham is a general internist and national health policy leader. She was Vice President at Anthem, Inc., responsible for value-based care initiatives for the country’s second largest health insurance company. Prior to Anthem, Dr. Pham served as Chief Innovation Officer at the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation, where she was a founding official, and the architect of Medicare’s foundational programs on accountable care organizations and primary care. Dr. Pham was Co-Director of Research at the Center for Studying Health System Change and has published extensively on provider payment policy and its intersection with health disparities, quality performance, provider behavior, and market trends. She serves on numerous advisory bodies, including the National Advisory Council for the Agency on Healthcare Research and Quality, the Maryland Primary Care Program, and was a member of the Board Executive Committee at the Health Care Transformation Task Force. Dr. Pham earned her AB from Harvard University, her MD from Temple University, and her MPH from Johns Hopkins University, where she was also a Robert Wood Johnson Clinical Scholar.
Contact: mai.pham@ie-care.org
Jennifer Podulka, M.P.Aff., senior consultant, Health Management Associates, is a researcher, strategist, and policy adviser with extensive data analysis and project management expertise. Much of her work has focused on physician payment policy, traditional Medicare, Medicare Advantage, Medicare Part D, CMS Innovation Center models, the federal budget, and the broader health care system context for Medicare policy. Ms. Podulka earned a master’s degree in public affairs from the LBJ School at the University of Texas, Austin, and a bachelor’s degree in government, also from the University of Texas, Austin.
Contact: jpodulka@healthmanagement.com