Looking Back, Looking Ahead: Medicaid Reform In Florida

Sponsored by:
Jessie Ball duPont Fund
Community Foundation of Jacksonville
Florida Health Policy Center
Florida Philanthropic Network

Wednesday, October 15, 2008
Marriott Tampa Airport, Tampa, Florida

Biographical Information
Speakers and Panelists

Joan Alker
Georgetown University, Health Policy Institute
Joan Alker is deputy executive director at the Center for Children and Families and a research associate professor at the Georgetown University Health Policy Institute. Her work focuses on health coverage for low-income children and families, with an emphasis on premium assistance policies, immigrant issues, cost-sharing and state Medicaid waivers. Some of her recent publications include Choosing Premium Assistance: What Does State Experience Tell Us?, Immigrants and Health Care: A Primer, and state-specific analyses of Medicaid in Florida, Connecticut, and Georgia. Her previous positions include associate director of government affairs at Families USA and assistant director of the National Coalition for the Homeless. She holds a Master of Philosophy in politics from St. Antony’s College, Oxford University, and a Bachelor of Arts with honors in political science from Bryn Mawr College.

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Samantha Artiga
The Kaiser Commission on Medicaid and the Uninsured
Samantha Artiga is a Senior Policy Analyst for the Kaiser Commission on Medicaid and the Uninsured at the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation’s Washington, DC, office. The Commission, the largest program area of the Foundation, provides information and analysis on health care coverage and access for the low-income population, with a special focus on Medicaid’s role and coverage of the uninsured. Ms. Artiga’s work focuses on tracking and analyzing changes in state Medicaid and SCHIP programs, particularly changes made through waivers. Other focus areas include immigrant health issues, coverage and access to care for low-income children and families, and the health care impacts of Hurricane Katrina. Prior to joining the Commission, Ms. Artiga worked with the National Program Office of the Healthy Steps for Young Children Program, a program designed to help improve provision of health services to children between ages zero and three. In this role, she provided technical assistance to health care practices that were implementing the program and disseminated information on best practices. Ms. Artiga holds a Masters in Health Services Administration degree with a concentration in Health Policy and a Bachelor of Arts degree in Economics from the George Washington University.

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Yvonne Bigos
Florida Office of Program Policy Analysis and Government Accountability (OPPAGA)
Yvonne Bigos is a Chief Legislative Analyst with the Florida Legislature’s Office of Program Policy Analysis and Government Accountability (OPPAGA). She has over 25 years experience in program evaluation and policy analysis and has been with the Legislature since 1986. In her work with the Legislature, Ms. Bigos supervises reviews of state agency programs primarily in the area of health and social services. Prior to working for the Legislature, Ms.Bigos taught mathematics and biology for several years; she also worked as a school system evaluator and as an evaluator of a federally funded aging project. Ms. Bigos earned Bachelor’s, Master’s, and Specialist’s degrees from the University of Maine. In addition, she has completed all coursework requirements for a Ph.D. in measurement and evaluation at Florida State University.

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Paul Duncan
University of Florida
Paul Duncan has been a faculty member at the University of Florida for just under twenty-five years. His appointment is in the Department of Health Services Administration, College of Health Professions, where he also serves as Chairman. Duncan’s teaching assignments are targeted to the training of health services administration professionals focused on the challenges of administrative leadership in health care organizations, as well as doctoral level trainees focused on studying and understanding how the health care system works. Author of nearly 100 published articles and dozens of health policy reports, the primary focus of Duncan’s research is access to health care, including health insurance coverage. From 1998 until the present, he has been responsible for the design and implementation of major surveys of health insurance coverage in Florida, Kansas, Indiana, and elsewhere. When not teaching or doing research, Duncan takes his interests into the community. He has been a member and chair of the Health Care Board of Alachua County, Florida. For almost ten years, he served on the Board of Directors, and has twice been elected President of the ACORN Clinic, an award winning medical and dental care clinic that serves poor and uninsured rural residents in the areas north of his home in Gainesville, Florida.

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Tad Fisher
Florida Academy of Family Physicians
Tad P. Fisher was selected as the Executive Vice President and Chief Executive Officer of the Florida Academy of Family Physicians in July of 2002. He joined the Academy in November 2002. Mr. Fisher is only the third executive hired in the 54-year history of the Florida Academy. Prior to taking the role of EVP/CEO for the Florida Academy of Family Physicians, Tad and Christine Fisher established Creative Political Foundations, Inc. (CPF) in 1997. Anchoring the firm’s expertise in the health care arena, Mr. Fisher has brought more than 22 years of experience as a political consultant, health care profession executive lobbyist, and strategist to the firm. His depth of knowledge includes health political strategies, public affairs programming, grassroots political and public relations strategies and issues affecting the health care industry. Mr. Fisher received his Bachelor of Arts degree in Political Science from Belmont Abbey College in North Carolina.

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Jack Hoadley
Georgetown University
Jack Hoadley is a health policy analyst and researcher with about 25 years experience in this field. He joined Georgetown University’s Health Policy Institute as a Research Professor in January 2002, where he is conducting research projects on health financing topics with a particular focus on prescription drug issues. Recent projects have included studies of the use of formularies by Medicare drug plans, the impact of the Medicare drug benefit’s coverage gap, the use of evidence-based medicine to manage pharmacy costs for Medicaid, and an evaluation of recent changes to Florida’s Medicaid program. Prior to arriving at Georgetown, he held positions at the Department of Health and Human Services, the Physician Payment Review Commission and its successor, the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission, and the National Health Policy Forum. He also taught political science at Duke University and at the State University of New York at Stony Brook. Dr. Hoadley received his Ph.D. in political science from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 1979.

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Sherry Magill
Jessie Ball duPont Fund
Sherry Magill serves as President of the Jessie Ball duPont Fund, a private grantmaking foundation she served previously as executive director and program officer since May 1993. Located in Jacksonville, Florida, the Fund has assets of $300 million and an annual grants budget of $15 million. Prior to joining the Fund’s staff in 1991 as Program Officer for Education, Dr. Magill served as Vice President and Deputy to the President of Washington College, a small private liberal arts college located on Maryland’s Eastern Shore. She holds a bachelor’s and master’s degree from the University of Alabama, and a doctorate in American Studies from Syracuse University. She serves regularly as a senior moderator for the Aspen Institute, and is the founding executive director of the Wye Faculty Seminar, a nationally recognized enrichment program for professors teaching in the nation’s small colleges. Dr. Magill chaired the Jacksonville Community Council’s 1998 study on the nonprofit sector in north Florida, and served on the management team of the 2004 Town and Gown study. Dr. Magill is past president of the Jacksonville Women’s Network board, a past member of the Southeastern Council of Foundations board, the Leadership Jacksonville board, and the Southern Education Foundation board; a founding member and immediate past chair of the Florida Philanthropic Network, and a member of the Council on Foundations’ board.

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Greg Mellowe
Florida CHAIN
Greg Mellowe is the Policy Director for Florida CHAIN, a statewide organization working with and on behalf of Floridians who are uninsured, under-insured, or reliant on the health care safety net. Greg has worked with an array of public policy initiatives spanning health, housing, and human service needs at the local, state, and federal levels for more than 15 years. He has also served in an administrative capacity for a number of organizations that provide services to or advocate for the interests of low-income Floridians. Greg holds a Master of Social Work degree from Florida State University.

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Lisa Portelli
Winter Park Health Foundation
Lisa Portelli has been involved in non-profit programs since 1986 and has a background that gives her a unique perspective on issues affecting the working poor. Ms. Portelli was executive director of Shared Housing for Single Parents, Inc., a United Way agency that merged with the Coalition for the Homeless in 1992. Next she was vice president for housing at the Coalition for the Homeless of Central Florida, then executive director of the I.M. Sulzbacher Center for the Homeless in Jacksonville and director of the Workforce One-Stop Career Center before coming to the Foundation in 2002. Ms. Portelli has served on the Governor’s Commission on Homelessness, the board of the Central Florida and NE Florida WAGES program, the Florida Coalition for the Homeless, the Florida Housing Coalition and the Orlando Neighborhood Improvement Corporation. She was founding chairman of the Board for Healing the Children of Florida Inc. She was awarded the Celebration of Leadership–Tribute to Outstanding Women award in 1997 and has a degree in journalism from University of Wisconsin and a Master of Arts degree in Public Administration from the University of Central Florida.

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Joseph Rogers
Broward Health, South Florida Community Care Network
Joseph S. Rogers is the Senior Vice President of Business Development and Managed Care for Broward Health. Broward Health includes four medical centers, a children’s hospital, an outpatient surgical center, primary care centers, specialty care centers, school-based health centers and physician practices. Mr. Rogers is responsible for Broward Health-wide business development and managed care operations. He is involved in regulatory and legislative initiatives in furtherance of Broward Health business development. Mr. Rogers serves as chair of the Medicaid Reform Technical Advisory Panel for the Agency for Health Care Administration. The panel was created by the Florida Legislature to advise AHCA on various implementation issues with Medicaid reform. He also is a member of the Planning Advisory Committee of the Health Council of South Florida, Inc., the Special Needs Advisory Committee of the Broward County Children’s Service Council and a former member of the board for the Florida Health Reinsurance Program and the Florida Association of Health Plans. Mr. Rogers received his MBA and bachelor’s degree in communications from Florida Atlantic University. He started his career in healthcare with Jackson Memorial Hospital/Public Health Trust in 1988 as an assistant administrator in the planning department. He held a variety of positions before being promoted to Senior Vice President with Jackson Health Systems.

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Anne Swerlick
Florida Legal Services
Anne L. Swerlick is the Deputy Director of Florida Legal Services, Inc., a state support center for legal aid providers in Florida. She specializes in legislative and administrative advocacy and litigation on health law issues affecting the poor. Ms. Swerlick was formerly employed as Managing Attorney with the Advocacy Center for Persons With Disabilities, Inc. (1987- 1991) and as staff attorney and Deputy Director with Jacksonville Area Legal Aid, Inc. (1977-1987). Ms. Swerlick received her B.A. from the University of Virginia and her J.D. from the University of Virginia School of Law.

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Alan Weil
National Academy for State Health Policy
Alan R. Weil, J.D., M.P.P., has been executive director of the National Academy for State Health Policy since September of 2004. Previously, Mr. Weil served for seven years as director of the Assessing the New Federalism project at the Urban Institute, one of the largest privately funded social policy research projects ever undertaken in the United States. He has also held a cabinet position as executive director of the Colorado Department of Health Care Policy and Financing; was health policy advisor to Colorado Governor Roy Romer; and was assistant general counsel in the Massachusetts Department of Medical Security. He is the editor of two books: Welfare Reform: The Next Act and Federalism and Health Policy, and has authored chapters in a number of books and published articles in journals including Health Affairs and Inquiry. Mr. Weil was an appointed member of President Clinton’s Advisory Commission on Consumer Protection and Quality in the Health Care Industry, which drafted the patient’s bill of rights. He is a member of the Kaiser Commission on Medicaid and the Uninsured, the Commonwealth Fund Commission on a High Performance Health System, and serves on advisory committees for three Robert Wood Johnson Foundation projects. He is a member of the board of directors of the National Public Health and Hospitals Institute, and of the editorial board of State Health Watch. Mr. Weil is a graduate of the University of California at Berkeley, and received his M.P.P. degree from the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University and his J.D. from Harvard Law School.

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This event is sponsored by:

The Jessie Ball duPont Fund
 

The Florida Health Policy Center
 

The Community Foundation in Jacksonville
 

The Florida Philanthropic Network