Media Advisory: UCSF Health Reform Experts Available for Media Comment

By Juliana Bunim

Friday, March 23, marks the second anniversary of the Affordable Care Act, which set in motion a series of reforms that will roll out over the course of four years and grant 32 million more Americans insurance coverage. Next week the Supreme Court is scheduled to hear three days of arguments related to the legal challenges to the health care reform law.

UCSF Health Care Reform Experts

The following national experts at UCSF are available to discuss the status and potential impacts of health care reform:

  • Janet Coffman, MA, MPP, PhD, Assistant Adjunct Professor, UCSF Department of Family and Community Medicine and Philip R. Lee Institute for Health Policy Studies. Coffman 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.
  • Kevin Grumbach, MD, Chair, UCSF Department of Family and Community Medicine. Grumbach is an expert in new models for the delivery of primary care with an emphasis on increased patient-centric care, health care workforce, the impacts of universal coverage/national health insurance and primary care response to potential influx of patients in the wake of health care reform.
  • Patricia Dennehy, RN, DNP, FNPC, Clinical Professor and Director of Nurse Managed Health Center at Glide Foundation. Dennehy can speak to the increasingly important role nurses will be playing in the new era of health reform. Dennehy has testified before California lawmakers on improving access to health care under the new federal legislation.
  • John Maa, MD, Assistant Professor of Surgery and Director of the UCSF Surgical Hospitalist Program at UCSF. Ma 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. Ma 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.
  • Helene Lipton, PhD, Professor of Health Policy, UCSF Department of Clinical Pharmacy and Philip R. Lee Institute for Health Policy Studies. Lipton 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 Juliana Bunim in UCSF University Relations, 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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