Alliance for Health Policy Announces Two Board Members and Names New Board Leadership

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Sarina Katz
skatz@allhealhpolicy.org

Washington, D.C. – As the Alliance for Health Policy closes its milestone 30th anniversary year, the Board of Directors announces the appointment of new leadership that will guide the organization into its next phase of impact and programming.

Tanisha Carino, Ph.D., partner at Brunswick, will assume the role of chair. Elizabeth Hall, vice president of public policy and issues management at Elevance Health, will become vice chair and secretary. Margaret Murray, founding CEO of the Association for Community Affiliated Plans (ACAP), was re-elected as treasurer.

“I am honored to lead the Board of Directors at such a pivotal moment in the Alliance’s history,” shared Tanisha Carino. “The role of the Alliance as the go-to resource for unbiased health policy information has never been more critical. I look forward to ensuring our ability to deliver a balanced exchange of evidence, experience, and multiple perspectives to address future challenges and opportunities.”

Tanisha Carino brings over 20 years of experience driving growth and impact across multiple healthcare leadership positions in the government, private, and non-profit sectors. She has been a member of the Alliance’s Board since 2017. Currently a partner at Brunswick, she helps clients navigate the interconnected financial, political, and social worlds to build trusted relationships with all their stakeholders.

Elizabeth Hall brings a wealth of public and private experience to the Alliance Board of Directors. At Elevance Health, she and her staff work closely with business unit leaders and senior executives to develop enterprise positions on federal and state legislation. She previously served in positions at CMS, HHS, and within the Office of U.S. Senate Majority Leader William Frist, M.D. (R-TN), a former Alliance Congressional honorary co-chair.

In addition to new leadership, the Alliance welcomes Demetrios Kouzoukas, partner at Team8 and director of the Medicare Reform Initiative at Paragon Health Institute, and Marc Samuels, J.D., MPH, president and CEO of ADVI Health, to the Board of Directors. Each will serve three-year terms that begin on January 1, 2023.

Demetrios Kouzoukas has extensive experience spanning business, law, and government working with patients, policymakers, providers, insurers, and manufacturers to improve health care in the United States. At Team8, he is a co-founder and leader of a venture foundry that builds and scales transformative digital health companies. At Paragon Health Institute, Mr. Kouzoukas leads the Medicare Initiative to empower Medicare beneficiaries by increasing their control of their decisions and finances while improving health outcomes and lowering costs. Previously, he served as the director of the Center for Medicare and the principal deputy administrator of the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS).

Marc Samuels bridges the gap between business strategy and policy matters. At ADVI Health, he focuses on bringing data and experience driven strategic guidance to the health care ecosystem. Mr. Samuels also spent ten years in the public health care sector working to improve regulatory and payer policy, promote appropriate clinical outcomes, and highlight the importance of the patient experience.

The Alliance expresses immense gratitude to outgoing chair Tom Scully, who has served on the Board of Directors since 2017. As a close friend to the Alliance since its founding in 1991, he has continuously championed our mission to educate generations of policymakers both inside Washington, DC and around the country.

Mr. Scully shared, “It has been an honor to work with the Alliance for these past thirty years and to serve on its Board of Directors during such a pivotal moment in history. Their tireless work to champion bipartisan discussion within the DC health policy landscape is critical to progress, and their value will continue well into the future.”

Read more about new Board members Mr. Kouzoukas and Mr. Samuels here:

Demetrios L. Kouzoukas

Demetrios L. Kouzoukas has deep experience in every health care sector and spanning business, law, and government. He is a partner at the Team8 Health venture foundry, a member of the Board of Directors of Clover Health, director of Paragon Health Institute’s Medicare Initiative, and a member of the American Medical Association Digital Medicine Payment Advisory Group.

From 2017 to 2021, Kouzoukas served as the chief executive of the Medicare program at the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS). In that role, he worked with patients, policymakers, providers, insurers, and manufacturers to improve health care in the United States. Prior to joining CMS, Demetrios was a senior executive at UnitedHealthcare’s Medicare business. He has also served as Principal Associate Deputy Secretary and as Deputy General Counsel of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, working with every part of the Department’s portfolio. He has built innovative practices ocused on new regulations and business models at two leading health care law firms. In addition, he has represented the public as an expert in public administration and health benefits as an appointee to the Administrative Conference of the United States.

Marc Samuels, J.D., MPH

Marc Samuels is founder and CEO of ADVI Health, a health care and life sciences advisory and consulting services firm headquartered in Washington, DC that helps clients accelerate growth, trailblaze innovation, and expand coverage of products and services. Marc also founded the firm’s life science accelerator, adviLAB, to invest in digital therapy, AI, MedTech, and cell and gene therapy clients in early stages of development. Marc has played a role in over 200 product and service projects over the last two decades from cell and gene, to rare and ultra-rare to oncology, and digital therapies. Marc has worked widely across the US health care system to improve regulatory and payer policy, promote appropriate clinical outcomes, and highlight the importance of the patient experience.

Before founding ADVI, Marc was a partner in HillCo Partners, an Austin-based public affairs and advocacy company. He served both President George W. Bush and George H.W. Bush at the Texas Health and Human Services Commission, the Governor’s Policy Office, the Vice President’s Council on Competitiveness, and the White House Office of Policy Development, respectively. Marc began his career as an HIV researcher at the Midwest AIDS Behavioral Research Center in Ann Arbor. Marc speaks frequently on business strategy and policy matters. His comments and analyses have appeared in STAT News, The Pink Sheet, Fierce Healthcare, the Journal of Oncology Practice, Medical Economics, among other places.

Marc earned his juris doctorate at the University of Texas, a master’s in public health from Yale School of Public Health, and a bachelor’s degree in neuropsychology from the University of Michigan. Marc is a visiting fellow at the Duke-Margolis Center for Health Policy, serves on the Board of Directors of NCCN Foundation, and is on the Advisory Board of the UCSF Rosenman Institute where he co-developed the Rosenman ADAPT and RISE programs, the later specifically created to advise and support founders from underrepresented groups to make the launch and scale of their health tech, digital or life science innovation as successful as possible.

About the Alliance for Health Policy

The Alliance for Health Policy is a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization dedicated to helping policymakers and the public better understand health policy, the root of the nation’s health care issues, and the trade-offs posed by various proposals for change. We believe a better health care system begins with a balanced exchange of evidence, experience, and multiple perspectives. Regardless of their point of view, our audience recognizes the Alliance’s reputation as a well-respected source for unbiased health policy information.