Media Advisory: UCSF Health Reform Experts Available for Media Comment

 

The U.S. Supreme Court is expected to issue its ruling on the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act this month.  The following national experts at UCSF are available to discuss the potential impacts of health care reform:

  • Andrew Bindman, MD, professor in the Department of Medicine and the UCSF Philip R. Lee Institute for Health Policy, worked as a staff member in Congress to help draft provisions in the Affordable Care Act. He currently is involved in implementing the law and evaluating its impact as a Senior Advisor to the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation in the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services in Washington and as the director of the California Medicaid Research Institute in California. Bindman can talk about a wide range of topics related to health reform including the provisions related to coverage expansion, primary care workforce expansion, health care delivery reform, and the challenges nationally and in California in implementing the law.
  • Josh Adler, MD, chief medical officer for UCSF Medical Center and UCSF Benioff Children's Hospital, can speak to the ruling’s effect on hospitals, on primary care, on payment reform and organizational realignment efforts such as Accountable Care Organizations. He directs the doctors who provide patient care at UCSF and oversees the quality of medical services and the integration of patient care, education and research. He also oversees care coordination, clinical resource management, compliance, medical staff affairs, quality assurance and risk management.
  • Claire Brindis, Dr. PH, director of the UCSF Philip R. Lee Institute for Health Policy Studies,  is an expert on women’s health services including the role of preventive health care, such as elimination of out-of-pocket cost sharing for preventive health services (e.g. contraceptive care), under the Accountable Care Act. In addition, she has conducted research focused on the role of the Act in expanding health care coverage for young adults up to age 26 as part of their parents’ health plans.
  • John Maa, MD, assistant professor of surgery and director of the UCSF Surgical Hospitalist Program, implemented the UCSF Surgery Hospitalist program in 2005. As of March 2012, an estimated 400 surgical hospitalist programs are emerging around America, inspired by the UCSF model. Maa can speak to the rising demand for emergency services and how the surgical hospitalist model can act as a way to better match patient needs with existing resources. 
  • Janet Coffman, PhD, assistant adjunct professor, UCSF Department of Family and Community Medicine and the UCSF Philip R. Lee Institute for Health Policy Studies, can speak to evidence-based medicine and health insurance coverage especially as it relates to prevention and California. Coffman is an expert on the health care workforce and serves as the principal analyst for medical effectiveness for the California Health Benefits Review Program, which provides the California State Legislature with data on the medical, cost and public health impacts of proposed health insurance benefit mandates and repeals.
  • Helene Lipton, PhD, professor of Health Policy, UCSF Department of Clinical Pharmacy and the UCSF Philip R. Lee Institute for Health Policy Studies, can speak to innovative, team-based models for treating chronically ill and underserved patients under health reform, as well as pharmacists’ unique role in these settings. Lipton is an expert on pharmacist- and drug-related provisions of the Affordable Care Act. These include major initiatives targeting chronically ill, elderly, and low-income patients, who are more likely to be taking prescriptions medications.

To arrange interviews, please contact Karin Rush-Monroe in UCSF Public Affairs, at (415) 502-NEWS.

UCSF is a leading university dedicated to promoting health worldwide through advanced biomedical research, graduate-level education in the life sciences and health professions, and excellence in patient care. For further information, please visit http://www.ucsf.edu/.

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