Commission Members

Chairman: Francis J. Crosson, M.D.HideDetails

Francis J. Crosson, M.D., spent 35 years as a physician and physician executive at Kaiser Permanente. In 1997 he founded and then for 10 years led the Permanente Federation LLC, the national umbrella organization for the physician half of Kaiser Permanente. Later he served as senior fellow at the Kaiser Permanente Institute for Health Policy and director of public policy for The Permanente Medical Group. From July 2012 through October 2014, he was group vice president of the American Medical Association in Chicago, IL, where he oversaw work related to physician practice satisfaction, efficiency, and sustainability. He previously served on MedPAC from 2004 to 2010, including as vice chair from 2009 to 2010. Dr. Crosson received his medical degree from the Georgetown University School of Medicine.

Los Altos, California Term Expires: April 2020

Vice Chairman: Jon B. Christianson, Ph.D.HideDetails

Jon B. Christianson, Ph.D., is the James A. Hamilton Chair in Health Policy and Management in the Division of Health Policy and Management at the School of Public Health at the University of Minnesota. His research has addressed the areas of health finance, payment structures, rural health care, managed care payment, and the quality and design of care systems. Dr. Christianson received his Ph.D. in economics from the University of Wisconsin.

School of Public Health at the University of Minnesota Minneapolis, MN Term Expires: April 2019

Amy Bricker, R.Ph.HideDetails

Amy Bricker, R.Ph., is president of the Supply Chain Division of Express Scripts, Inc., in St. Louis, MO. She also has responsibility for Inside Rx, an Express Scripts subsidiary. She has held leadership roles at Express Scripts in pharmacy network management, supply chain economics, and retail contracting and strategy. Prior positions include regional vice president of account management and director of clinical sales with Walgreens Health Services and director of community retail pharmacy for BJC HealthCare. She currently serves on the boards of two nonprofit organizations: Memory Care Home Solutions and Youth in Need. Ms. Bricker received a bachelor of science in pharmacy at St. Louis College of Pharmacy.

Express Scripts St. Louis, MO Term Expires: April 2019

Kathy Buto, M.P.A.HideDetails

Kathy Buto, M.P.A.,is an independent consultant and an expert in U.S. and international health policy. She serves on the Healthcare Leadership Council of the Healthcare Financial Management Association and as a venture adviser to Incube Labs LLC. She also serves on the board of the Arlington Free Clinic and as a member of Women of Impact, a women’s health care leadership group. Her previous positions include vice president of global health policy at Johnson & Johnson, senior health adviser at the Congressional Budget Office, deputy director of the Center for Health Plans and Providers at the Health Care Financing Administration (now Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services), and deputy executive secretary for health at the Department of Health and Human Services. Ms. Buto received her master’s in public administration from Harvard University.

Arlington, VA Term Expires: April 2020

Brian DeBusk, Ph.D.HideDetails

Brian DeBusk, Ph.D., is chief executive officer of DeRoyal Industries in Powell, TN, which operates in the surgical, orthopedic, wound care, and healthcare information technology markets. He also serves as vice chairman of Lincoln Memorial University in rural Tennessee, which includes graduate medical education programs for physicians, physician assistants, nurse practitioners, and nurses. Dr. DeBusk’s prior employment includes General Electric, Inobis, and Pace Energy Systems. He has served on the faculty of both the University of Tennessee and Lincoln Memorial University, teaching classes in information technology and business strategy. Dr. DeBusk holds a Ph.D. in electrical engineering from Vanderbilt University and a master of business administration from Emory University.

DeRoyal Industries Powell, TN Term Expires: April 2019

Karen DeSalvo, M.D., M.P.H., MScHideDetails

Karen DeSalvo, M.D., M.P.H., MSc, is a Professor of Medicine and Population Health at the Dell Medical School at the University of Texas at Austin, where she provides leadership on efforts addressing the social determinants of health, including innovative projects on community health, technology, and medical care. Prior to joining the University of Texas, Dr. DeSalvo was dually appointed as the Acting Assistant Secretary for Health and the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Dr. DeSalvo received her medical and public health degrees from Tulane University School of Medicine, where she also completed her residency and fellowship in internal medicine. She has a master’s degree in clinical epidemiology from the Harvard School of Public Health.

Dell Medical School at the University of Texas Austin, TX Term Expires: April 2021

Marjorie Ginsburg, B.S.N., M.P.H.HideDetails

Marjorie Ginsburg, B.S.N., M.P.H., is the Founding Executive Director of the Center for Healthcare Decisions, Inc., which she ran from 1994 through mid-2016. In that role, she was responsible for the design, implementation, and evaluation of projects and programs that fostered civic engagement around health policy issues that affected individuals and society. Among the policy issues Ms. Ginsburg studied were end-of-life care, health plan benefits design, and strategies to reduce overuse of unnecessary medical care. Ms. Ginsburg currently volunteers as a Medicare counselor with the state’s SHIP program (called the Health Insurance Counseling and Advocacy Program) in Sacramento, CA.

Sacramento, CA Term Expires: April 2021

Paul Ginsburg, Ph.D.HideDetails

Paul Ginsburg, Ph.D., is the Leonard Schaeffer Chair in Health Policy Studies at the Brookings Institution in Washington, DC, and professor of health policy at the University of Southern California, where he is affiliated with the USC Schaeffer Center for Health Policy and Economics. Prior positions include founder and president of the Center for Studying Health System Change, founding executive director of the Physician Payment Review Commission, senior economist at RAND, and deputy assistant director at the Congressional Budget Office. Dr. Ginsburg earned his doctorate in economics from Harvard University.

Brookings Institution Washington, DC Term Expires: April 2019

David Grabowski, Ph.D.HideDetails

David Grabowski, Ph.D., is a Professor in the Department of Health Care Policy at Harvard Medical School in Boston, MA. His research primarily focuses on the economics of aging, with an emphasis on post-acute and long-term care financing, organization, and delivery of services. Dr. Grabowski served as a member of two CMS technical expert panels that focused on the home health prospective payment system and the quality measures used in the home health value-based purchasing model. He serves on the editorial board of several journals, including the American Journal of Health Economics and Medical Care Research & Review. Dr. Grabowski received his Ph.D. in public policy from the Irving B. Harris School of Public Policy at the University of Chicago.

Harvard Medical School Boston, MA Term Expires: April 2020

Jonathan Jaffery, M.D., M.S., M.M.M.HideDetails

Jonathan Jaffery, M.D., M.S., M.M.M., is a Professor of Medicine at the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health in Madison, WI, and a practicing nephrologist. Dr. Jaffery serves as the Chief Population Health Officer at UW Health and as the President and CEO at UW Health ACO, Inc., where he is responsible for the overall development, coordination, and implementation of UW Health’s population health management strategy. Dr. Jaffery received his medical degree from The Ohio State University College of Medicine and completed his residency and fellowship training at the University of Vermont. He was a Robert Wood Johnson Health Policy Fellow and has graduate degrees from the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health and the University of Southern California Marshall School of Business.

University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health Madison, WI Term Expires: April 2021

Jonathan Perlin, M.D., Ph.D., M.S.H.A.HideDetails

Jonathan Perlin, M.D., Ph.D., M.S.H.A., is the President of Clinical Services and Chief Medical Officer of HCA Healthcare in Nashville, TN. In that role, he has leadership responsibility for clinical services and improving performance at HCA’s hospitals and other sites of service. Prior to joining HCA, Dr. Perlin was Under Secretary for Health in the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs. Dr. Perlin is a member of the National Academy of Medicine and has faculty appointments at Vanderbilt University and Virginia Commonwealth University. Dr. Perlin received his PhD in pharmacology and his medical degree from the Medical College of Virginia at Virginia Commonwealth University, where he also completed his residency training in internal medicine.

HCA Healthcare Nashville, TN Term Expires: April 2021

Bruce Pyenson, F.S.A., M.A.A.A.HideDetails

Bruce Pyenson, F.S.A., M.A.A.A., is principal and consulting actuary at Milliman Inc. in New York, NY. His work has focused on diverse aspects of health care and insurance, including recent work related to alternative payment models for accountable care organizations, such as shared savings, as well as financial modeling of therapeutic interventions. He has co-authored publications on such topics as the cost-effectiveness of lung cancer screening, pandemic influenza, and site-of-service cost differences for chemotherapy. Mr. Pyenson is a fellow of the Society of Actuaries and a member of the American Academy of Actuaries.

Milliman, Inc. New York, NY Term Expires: April 2019

Jaewon Ryu, M.D., J.D.HideDetails

Jaewon Ryu, M.D., J.D., is the Executive Vice President and Chief Medical Officer for Geisinger, an integrated healthcare system headquartered in Danville, PA and comprised of hospitals, employed providers, a health plan, a medical school, and research and innovation centers. Before going to Geisinger, he served as President of Integrated Care Delivery at Humana and previously held leadership roles at the University of Illinois Hospital & Health Sciences System and at Kaiser Permanente. Dr. Ryu received his undergraduate education at Yale University and his medical and law degrees from the University of Chicago, after which he completed his residency training in emergency medicine at Harbor-UCLA Medical Center.

Geisinger Health System Danville, PA Term Expires: April 2021

Dana Gelb Safran, Sc.D.HideDetails

Dana Gelb Safran, Sc.D., is the Chief Performance Measurement and Improvement Officer and Senior Vice President, Enterprise Analytics, at Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts. In that role, she is responsible for leading efforts to use data, measurement, incentives, and reporting to improve the quality, outcomes, and affordability of care. Dr. Safran is also an associate professor at Tufts University School of Medicine. She currently serves on a number of state and national advisory bodies related to healthcare quality and affordability, including the National Quality Forum Consensus Standards Approval Committee and the CMS Technical Expert Panel on the Quality Rating System. Dr. Safran received her Sc.D. in health policy and management from the Harvard School of Public Health.

Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts Boston, MA Term Expires: April 2020

Warner Thomas, M.B.A.HideDetails

Warner Thomas, M.B.A., is president and CEO of the Ochsner Health System in New Orleans, LA. He oversees a network of 10 hospitals, 45 health centers and clinics, and 2,200 affiliated physicians. The Ochsner system includes the Ochsner Medical Center in New Orleans, the Ochsner Clinic group practice, rurally based and subacute care hospitals, skilled nursing and rehabilitation facilities, and hospice. The Ochsner Medical Center operates one of largest accredited non-university-based graduate medical education programs in the United States. It is also one of the largest Medicare risk contractors in the region and offers an accountable care organization for Medicare. Mr. Thomas’s prior positions include chief operating officer of the Ochsner Clinic, vice president of managed care and network development at the Southern New Hampshire Medical Center, and senior auditor and consultant at Ernst & Young. He received his master of business administration from Boston University Graduate School of Management.

Ochsner Health System New Orleans, LA Term Expires: April 2020

Susan Thompson, M.S., R.N.HideDetails

Susan Thompson, M.S., R.N., is senior vice president of integration and optimization with UnityPoint Health, an integrated delivery system serving Iowa, central and western Illinois, and central Wisconsin. Ms. Thompson is also the chief executive officer of UnityPoint Health Accountable Care, L.C., an Iowa limited liability company that brings together a diverse group of health care providers including hospitals, employed and independent physicians, and other providers, as well as other health initiatives. Previously, she was president and chief executive officer of UnityPoint Health–Fort Dodge, which serves a predominantly rural and aging population and included a sole community hospital, a primary care and multispecialty physician group, management contracts with five critical access hospitals throughout the region, and a Pioneer Accountable Care Organization. She also served in successive clinical and management positions at Trinity Regional Medical Center, as intensive care staff nurse, director of quality systems, assistant director of patient-focused care, chief information officer, chief operating officer, and chief executive officer. Ms. Thompson obtained her B.S. in nursing and her M.S. in health services management from Clarkson College in Omaha, NE.

UnityPoint Health West Des Moines, IA Term Expires: April 2021

Pat Wang, J.D.HideDetails

Pat Wang, J.D., is chief executive officer of Healthfirst in New York, NY. Healthfirst is a not-for-profit provider-sponsored health plan that serves Medicare enrollees, including those who are eligible for low-income subsidies and those who are dually eligible for Medicare and Medicaid. Healthfirst incorporates a payment model that transfers risk to hospital and physician partners. Ms. Wang previously served as senior vice president of finance and managed care for the Greater New York Hospital Association. She received her law degree from the New York University School of Law.

Healthfirst New York, NY Term Expires: April 2019