Speaker biographies
Richard Foster is chief actuary for the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), where he is responsible for all actuarial and other financial analyses for the Medicare and Medicaid programs. Prior to joining the CMS in 1995, Mr. Foster served as deputy chief actuary for the Social Security Administration for thirteen years. He is a fellow of the Society of Actuaries (1980) and a member of the American Academy of Actuaries, American Statistical Association, American Economic Association, National Academy of Social Insurance, and Senior Executives Association. He has written numerous articles and reports on Medicare and Social Security issues. Mr. Foster has received a number of awards, including the Presidential Meritorious Executive Award in 1998 from President Clinton, the Presidential Distinguished Executive Award in 2001 from President Bush, and the Robert J. Myers Public Service Award from the American Academy of Actuaries in 2006. In 2007, Modern Healthcare named Mr. Foster the sixteenth most influential person in health care in the United States.
Robert B. Helms is a resident scholar in health policy studies at AEI. He has written and lectured extensively on health policy, health economics, and the economics of the pharmaceutical industry. Mr. Helms currently participates in the Consensus Group, an informal task force that is developing market-oriented health reform concepts. He has served on the National Advisory Council for Healthcare Research and Quality of the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality and the HHS Medicaid Commission. Mr. Helms is the editor of several AEI books on health policy, including American Health Policy: Critical Issues for Reform (AEI Press, 1993), Health Policy Reform: Competition and Controls (AEI Press, 1993), Competitive Strategies in the Pharmaceutical Industry (AEI Press, 1996), and Medicare in the 21st Century: Seeking Fair and Efficient Reform (AEI Press, 1999). He has also written on the history of Medicare, the tax treatment of health insurance, and international comparisons of health systems. From 1981 to 1989, he served as assistant secretary for planning and evaluation and deputy assistant secretary for health policy in the Department of Health and Human Services.
John Holahan is director of the health policy research center at the Urban Institute, where he focuses on Medicaid, state health policy, and issues of federalism and health. Mr. Holahan has developed proposals for broad health system reform, most recently in Massachusetts. He has also published research on the reasons for the growth in the uninsured over the past decade and on the effects of proposals to expand health insurance coverage on the number of uninsured and the cost to federal and state governments. Other research interests include health system reform, managed care, physician payment, and hospital cost containment. Mr. Holahan has also published research on the reasons for the growth in the uninsured over the past decade, the effects of proposals to expand health insurance coverage, and the number of uninsured and the cost to federal and state governments. His other research interests include health system reform, managed care, physician payment, and hospital cost containment.
Christopher Truffer is an actuary in the Office of the Actuary at the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS). He develops projections of Medicaid spending for the president’s budget and estimates impacts for legislative and regulatory Medicaid proposals. Mr. Truffer was the lead author of the 2008 Actuarial Report on the Financial Outlook for Medicaid, the first report of its kind within CMS to describe the ten-year projections of Medicaid expenditures and enrollment and to analyze Medicaid within the context of the U.S. health care system. He joined CMS in 2002 and became a fellow of the Society of Actuaries in 2008. He has coauthored several articles on the national health expenditure projections that have appeared in the health policy journal Health Affairs. Mr. Truffer has received several awards, including a CMS Administrator’s Achievement Award in 2004 and 2006 and a CMS Administrator’s Citation in 2007
Kerry Weems was appointed acting administrator of the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) in September 2007. Mr. Weems has served in a variety of senior leadership positions at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), including chief financial officer, where he led the successful redesign and implementation of the department’s financial management system. He also served as the deputy chief of staff to HHS Secretary Mike Leavitt. He is currently vice chair of the American Health Information Community, a federal advisory body chartered in 2005 to accelerate the development and adoption of health information technology. Mr. Weems joined HHS in 1983 as a junior budget analyst. He has been recognized for his leadership at HHS; he received the Presidential Rank Award from both President Bush and President Clinton.
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