Park and Wang Elected to Alliance for Health Policy Board of Directors

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

Washington, D.C. — The Alliance for Health Policy is pleased to announce the appointment of two new members to our Board of Directors. Michael Park, J.D., MPH, partner at Alston & Bird, and Pat Wang, J.D., president and CEO of Healthfirst, will each serve three-year terms that began on January 1, 2022. These new additions, along with our new Board leadership and established members, will help guide the Alliance through it’s 30th anniversary year and well beyond.

“I am excited to welcome Mike and Pat, whose diverse experiences and knowledge will be invaluable as we move into the next phase of the Alliance,” said Tom Scully, Board Chair of the Alliance for Health Policy. “Their broad backgrounds in the public health sector will be an immense resource as the Alliance continues its mission to educate the health policy community at large.”

Mike Park brings to the Alliance more than 20 years of health law and policy practice. At Alston & Bird, he focuses his practice on representing health care providers, insurers, and manufacturers before Congress and the administration on a wide range of health care legislative and regulatory issues. Mr. Park also combines congressional and administration experience, serving as health policy counsel to the Senate Committee on Finance and in several roles in the Department of Health and Human Services.

Pat Wang has extensive experience in healthcare payment policy, value based care, and health care access and coverage expansions for underserved populations. She has led New York’s largest not-for-profit health insurance company through several cycles of growth, quality improvement, and provider engagement and has deep knowledge about the Medicaid and Medicare Advantage programs, which cover the vast majority of Healthfirst’s 1.7 million members.

Read more about Mr. Park and Ms. Wang here:

Michael Park, J.D., MPH

Mike Park is a partner in Alston & Bird’s Health Care Legislative & Public Policy Group. He has more than 20 years of health law and policy experience. He focuses his practice on representing health care providers, insurers, and manufacturers before Congress and the administration on a wide range of health care legislative and regulatory issues and also counsels clients in connection with congressional investigations. Before joining Alston & Bird, Mike served as health policy counsel to Senator Charles Grassley (R-IA) during his tenure as Chairman of the Senate Committee on Finance, where he developed legislation on issues including Medicare payment policy, health information technology, and program integrity and conducted congressional investigations on public and private health care stakeholders. Mike also served as a policy coordinator in the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office of the Secretary, as a project officer for Medicare payment demonstration programs at the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, and as a health research analyst at the Center for Studying Health System Change. He currently serves as an adjunct faculty member at George Washington University’s School of Public Health. Mike received his B.A. degree from Connecticut College, his J.D. degree from Penn State Dickinson School of Law and his M.P.H. degree from Columbia University.

Pat Wang, J.D.

Pat Wang joined Healthfirst as President and CEO in 2008 after serving as a senior executive overseeing payment policy at the Greater New York Hospital Association. Healthfirst was founded by 15 area hospital systems and was an early pioneer of value-based payment (VBP). Today, it is the largest not-for-profit health insurer in New York with 1.7 million Medicaid, Medicare Advantage, Affordable Care Act, and Long Term Care enrollees. It works in deep collaboration with its aligned provider partners to improve access, quality and outcomes for its members.

Ms. Wang is completing her second term as a Commissioner on the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission (MedPAC), which advises the U.S. Congress on Medicare payment policy, and is on the boards of directors of America’s Health Insurance Plans (AHIP) and the New York Health Plan Association. She is a trustee of the Citizens Budget Commission, a non-partisan, non-profit civic organization focused on the well-being of future New Yorkers and was a member of New York’s second Medicaid Reform Taskforce which grappled with program reform in the midst of State budget shortfalls. She also co-chaired New York’s Vaccine Equity Taskforce where she worked with community leaders, organizations, and providers to ensure accurate information about and access to all populations to COVID-19 vaccines. Earlier in her career, Ms. Wang clerked for the Honorable Whitman Knapp, U.S. District Court Judge for the Southern District of New York and practiced health law in New York City.

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.