Hospital Leader to Know: Glenn Hackbarth, JD, Chair of MedPAC

In its June report to Congress, the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission called for the Department of Health and Human Services to modify the current payment system so that academic medical centers must meet explicit performance goals before receiving funds for graduate medical education.

As chair of MedPAC, Glenn M. Hackbarth, JD, is intimately involved in the attempt to increase performance in academic medical centers. He said that while he thinks current accreditation standards are a good framework for deciding whether centers receive funds, he "would envision that it would be a graduated system of payments so that the programs that perform the highest on the new measures would receive larger payments."

"Those that perform poorly would receive either small payments or no payments," he said. "What's new about this is we're saying if we're going to fund graduate medical education, let's use it as a way to achieve our goals for producing the physicians of the future and not just pay it out as an add-on for the delivery of services."

The higher standards follow a general trend in healthcare of requiring facilities to meet quality measures before they can qualify for funding. Mr. Hackbarth and MedPAC have long been advocates of focusing hospital care on the patient, having pushed for greater support for primary care as well as stricter oversight on self-referral.

Mr. Hackbarth serves as chair of MedPAC, the commission that advises Congress on Medicare issues, as well as an independent consultant. He has experience as a healthcare executive, government official and policy analyst.

In a news release regarding Mr. Hackbarth's appointment to MedPAC, Commonwealth Fund board chair James Tallon said, "Mr. Hackbarth is a nationally recognized leader working to move U.S. healthcare toward a high performance health system, and his diverse experiences as a healthcare executive, government official, and policy analyst will certainly enrich the board's deliberations."

Mr. Hackbarth served as CEO and founder of Harvard Vanguard Medical Associates, a multispecialty group practice in Boston that serves as a major teaching affiliate of Harvard Medical School. He also served as senior vice president of Harvard Community Health Plan and in various positions at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

Read more on notable hospital leaders:

-Hospital Industry Leader to Know: Dr. Francis Collins, Director of the NIH

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