Our committees represent the major stakeholder groups in Washington’s health care system. They work with Washington Health Alliance staff to help steer the shift toward value-based purchasing in Washington.
The QIC is made up of about two dozen clinician leaders from major medical groups, hospitals and health plans from around the state. The QIC meets bi-monthly and oversees the Alliance’s quality reporting, including clinical and patient experience measures. Beginning with the first report, the QIC has been front and center in selecting the quality measures included in the Community Checkup and developing the reporting methods used by the Alliance (e.g., provider attribution methods, as well as methods to ensure statistical reliability of results and thresholds for public reporting). Having clinician leaders lead this process through countless discussions and meetings over the years has been key in building provider support and trust in the public reporting conducted by the Alliance.
Membership:
Mary Anderson, MD – Chief Clinical Integration and Quality Officer, The Polyclinic/Physician Care Alliance/Physicians Care Network
Demetria Malloy – Chief Medical Officer, Community Health Plan of Washington
Edwin Carmack, MD – Quality Medical Director, Confluence Health
Kavita Chawla, MD – Chair, EBM Education Committee, Virginia Mason Franciscan Health
Francis Gough, MD – Chief Medical Officer, Molina Healthcare
Richard Hourigan, MD (Vice Chair) – Market Medical Executive, Pacific Northwest, Cigna
Steven Jacobson, MD (Chair) – Medical Director, Government Programs, Premera Blue Cross
Kristina Petsas – Chief Medical Officer, UnitedHealthCare Pacific Northwest
Emily Transue – Chief Clinical Officer, Comagine Health
Komal Patil-Sisodia, MD – Ambulatory Quality Officer, EvergreenHealth
Wayne Rawlins, MD – Chief Medical Officer, WellSpark Health
Jeanne Robinson, MD – Quality Vice President, Northwest Permanente
Nicole Saint Clair, MD – Executive Medical Director, Regence BlueShield
Michael Shannon, MD – Physician Executive and Chief Medical Officer, PSW
Pamela Sheffield, MD – Medical Director, Aetna
Ashley Wolfe, MD – Regional Chief Medical Officer, Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (San Francisco, Seattle, and Denver)
Hugh Straley, MD – Chair, Dr. Robert Bree Collabortive
John Vassall, MD – Clinical Associate Professor, Washington State University Elson S. Floyd College of Medicine
Judy Zerzan, MD – Chief Medical Officer, Clinical Quality and Care Transformation, Washington State Health Care Authority
The Purchaser Affinity Group (PAG) was formed to give employers and union trusts the opportunity to meet regularly to discuss value-based benefit design, value-based purchasing and other ways to reduce the medical cost trend. All purchaser members of the Alliance are encouraged to attend the PAG’s quarterly meetings. Among the group’s areas of interest are: sharing best practices regarding communication and engagement of consumers about their health decisions; learning about value-based purchasing and benefit design; working together to give a consistent message to health plans regarding expectations for network adequacy, payment and contracting to drive value and improving quality and member experience in the market. Every two years the PAG also sponsors eValue8™, a nationally developed tool and process used to evaluate the performance of commercial health plans.
The Purchaser Affinity Group is open to all purchaser members of the Washington Health Alliance.
The HEC meets bi-monthly, includes about two dozen members, and is a multi-stakeholder group with representatives from provider organizations, purchasers, brokers, health plans, researchers, consumers and Milliman. This committee led the initial effort to select a data vendor for the Alliance, managing the RFP process that led to the selection of Milliman. The focus of the HEC is on improving transparency of utilization and price variation to reduce unwarranted variation and the overall cost trend.
Membership:
David DiGiuseppe – Vice President, Healthcare Economics, Community Health Plan of Washington
Jim Fitzpatrick – Vice President, Pacific Northwest, Cigna
Adam Furman – Associate Director, Medical Value and Outcomes, Sanofi
Will Fox – Principal and Consulting Actuary, Milliman
Stephanie Garnett – Network Market Head, Aetna
Jim Gregson – Vice President, Parker, Smith & Feek
Jeremy Chrisman, DO – Chief Transformation Officer, The Vancouver Clinic
Jutta Joesch – Healthcare Economist, King County
John Nelson, MD – Medical Director, Eastside Health Network
Shawna Lang – Section Manager, ERB Portfolio Management and Monitoring, HCA
Ross Laursen – Consumer Representative
Larry McNutt – SVP, Corporate Admin/Pension, Northwest Administrators, Inc.
Christine Palermo, MD – System Director, Denials Management & Prevention, CommonSpirit Health
Brian Ritchie – Assistant Director Actuarial, Strategic Provider Analytics, Regence BlueShield
John Robinson, MD – Consumer Representative
Caitlin Safford – Senior Director of Government Affairs, Washington State Hospital Association
Steve Schramm – Vice President and CFO, MultiCare Connected Care, LLC
Walter Sive – Consumer Representative