Tara O’Neill Hayes, MSPPM, is the deputy director of health care policy at American Action Forum. Hayes’s research focuses on health insurance costs and coverage, the Medicare and Medicaid programs, drug pricing and reimbursement policies, and the budgetary impacts of health care programs. In January 2019, Hayes was invited to join the National Academy of Social Insurance in recognition of her work on Medicare policy. Before joining AAF, Hayes worked as a Legislative Assistant in the U.S. House of Representatives for various members from her home state of South Carolina, covering a broad portfolio of issues including health care and budget policy. Hayes earned her Master’s in Public Policy and Management with a health policy concentration from Carnegie Mellon University, graduating with Distinction. In 2014, she was named a David Winston Health Policy Scholar. For her undergraduate studies, Hayes studied political science at Clemson University, graduating magna cum laude.
Tricia Neuman, Sc.D., is a senior vice president of the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation (KFF), director of KFF’s Medicare Policy Project, and senior advisor to the President. Dr. Neuman focuses on a broad range of issues pertaining to Medicare and the population it serves and has more recently focused on health reform proposals, including Medicare-for-all and public options, and prescription drug costs. Dr. Neuman is widely regarded as a Medicare policy expert, with broad knowledge of issues associated with coverage, financing and care of older Americans and people with disabilities, and proposals to sustain Medicare for the future. Dr. Neuman enjoys giving guest lectures at the Harvard Kennedy School of Government, Georgetown University and the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Hygiene and Public Health. She has been invited to present expert testimony before Congressional committees and other key audiences on numerous occasions and has published numerous extensively on topics related to health coverage and financing for the Medicare population. Dr. Neuman has appeared as an independent expert or been quoted in various media outlets, such as NPR, NBC Nightly News, CBS Evening News, Today Show, NewsHour, New York Times, Washington Post, Vox, Politico and Huffington Post. Before joining the Foundation in 1995, Dr. Neuman served on the professional staff of the Ways and Means Subcommittee on Health in the U.S. House of Representatives, and on the staff of the U.S. Senate Special Committee on Aging working on health and long-term care issues. Dr. Neuman received a Doctor of Science degree in health policy and management and a Master of Science degree in health finance and management from the Johns Hopkins School of Hygiene and Public Health in Baltimore, Maryland. She received her bachelor’s degree from Wesleyan University in Middletown, Connecticut.
Leigh Purvis, MPA, is the director of health services research in AARP’s Public Policy Institute. She leads a team of policy analysts and researchers who work on health care issues that are relevant to the 50+ population. In addition, Purvis heads the Institute’s work on prescription drug issues. Her primary areas of expertise are prescription drug pricing, biologic drugs, and prescription drug coverage. She is a coauthor of the Public Policy Institute’s annual Rx Price Watch reports, which track price trends for prescription drugs widely used by older Americans. Purvis joined AARP in 2005 as a senior policy research analyst. Prior to her tenure at AARP, she worked for the American Psychological Association. Purvis is a recognized expert on prescription drug issues and frequently speaks with the press. Purvis has an MPA with a concentration in health administration and policy from George Mason University and a BS in psychology from the University of Mary Washington. She also holds a certificate in gerontology from the University of Washington.
Chris Sloan is associate principal at Avalere where he advises a number of clients, including pharmaceutical manufacturers, health plans, providers, and patient groups on key policy issues facing the healthcare industry. His particular areas of expertise include prescription drug pricing, economic and population impacts of policy, the Affordable Care Act, generic drugs, and biosimilars. Sloan’s economic analyses of key policy proposals and issues, including drug pricing and the repeal and replace efforts around the Affordable Care Act, have been featured in a wide range of publications, including the Wall Street Journal, the New York Times, the Washington Post, Politico, Axios, and Vox. Sloan’s work has also been cited by policy makers on the Senate floor and by the Congressional Budget Office.
Moderator
Sarah J. Dash, MPH, is the president and chief executive officer at the Alliance for Health Policy. She drives the mission and vision of the Alliance, as well as advances and maintains the reputation of the organization as the leading nonpartisan resource for policymakers and health leaders in an evolving health policy environment. Sarah joined the Alliance in 2014 as the vice president for policy and became president and CEO in May 2017. Sarah has long been an influential force in shaping health policy, having served as a senior aide on Capitol Hill and as a member of the research faculty at the Georgetown University Health Policy Institute’s Center on Health Insurance Reforms. Sarah holds a master’s degree in public health from the Yale School of Public Health and a bachelor’s degree in chemistry and literature from MIT. Sarah also holds an Executive Certificate in Nonprofit Management from Georgetown University