Gene L. Dodaro, acting Comptroller General of the United States and head of the U.S. Government Accountability Office, has announced the appointment of two new members and the reappointment of five existing members to the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission, or MedPAC.
“The delivery and financing of healthcare remain a serious concern for policymakers,” said Dodaro. “In government, the Medicare program faces particularly difficult challenges. I am pleased to report that, once again, we had many qualified applicants for MedPAC. The two new individuals chosen will bring impressive credentials and valuable experiences and insights to the commission.”
The newly appointed members are Robert A. Berenson, MD, senior fellow at the Urban Institute, and Herb B. Kuhn, an independent healthcare consultant specializing in Medicare and Medicaid issues.
Berenson is appointed to a three-year term through 2012. Kuhn is appointed to complete the remaining year of commissioner Jack Ebeler’s three-year term that began in 2007. Ebeler resigned from MedPAC in March.
Congress established MedPAC in 1997 to analyze access to care, cost and quality of care and other key issues affecting Medicare. MedPAC advises Congress on payments to health plans participating in the Medicare Advantage program and providers in Medicare’s traditional fee-for-service programs.
The Comptroller General is responsible for naming new commission members.
The reappointed members, whose terms will expire in April 2012, are Mitra Behroozi, executive director of 1199 SEIU Benefit and Pension Funds; Karen R. Borman, MD, professor of surgery at the University of Central Florida College of Medicine; Ronald D. Castellanos, MD, a urologist at Southwest Florida Urologic Associates; Glenn M. Hackbarth, (chairman); and Bruce Stuart, a professor and executive director of the Peter Lamy Center on Drug Therapy and Aging at the University of Maryland Baltimore.