The entries for the RWJF Plan Choice Challenge are in and we wanted to take some time to introduce our esteemed panel of judges. The RWJF Plan Choice Challenge seeks to generate tools that will help consumers to make better decisions when choosing a health insurance plan by allowing consumers to understand and compare the variations in cost-sharing features. The five finalist of Phase I of the challenge will be announced at the Health 2.0 Conference on September 21-24 in Santa Clara.
Shandon Fowler
Shandon Fowler is the Director of Product Management for Marketplaces at Benefitfocus, a leading provider of cloud-based benefits software solutions, where he formulates, develops and deploys the company’s private exchange solutions. Benefitfocus’ development and launch of a broad spectrum of private exchange solutions has given Fowler a unique, consumer-driven perspective on the rapidly evolving benefits landscape. Previously, Fowler was a Senior Program Manager for Social Media Strategy at AOL and the Director of Online/Print Media and Publications for the Tribeca Film Festival. He’s received recognition from the Webby Awards, eHealthcare Strategy, Communication Arts, The Effie Awards, and the Society of Professional Journalists.
Tom Baker
Tom Baker is the William Maul Measey Professor of Law and Health Sciences at the University of Pennsylvania Law School and the co-director of the Health Insurance Exchange Research Group of the Leonard Davis Institute of Health Economics at UPenn. Tom is also cofounder of Picwell, which supports all types of exchanges/benefit platforms with the most advanced decision support capabilities available. Leveraging predictive analytics, machine learning, and years of insurance experience, the Picwell tools help people optimize their health plan choice.
Chiquita Brooks-Lasure
Chiquita joined Breakaway Policy Strategies in June 2014 as a Senior Policy Advisor after spending over five years working on the passage and implementation of the Affordable Care Act (ACA). Most recently, she was the deputy center and policy director at the Center for Consumer Information and Insurance Oversight (CCIIO), which oversees the ACA’s private health insurance exchanges and works with states to maintain Health Insurance Market Places. As Deputy Director for Policy and Regulation, Chiquita led policy development for CCIIO, including managing CCIIO policy teams to develop and define proposals and ensuring that policy guidance reflected policy decisions made by senior leadership. Chiquita received her AB from Princeton University and her Master’s of Public Policy at Georgetown University.
Sabrina Corlette
Sabrina Corlette is a Senior Research Fellow and Project Director at the Center on Health Insurance Reforms (CHIR) at Georgetown University’s Health Policy Institute and an Adjunct Professor of Law at the Georgetown University Law Center. At CHIR she directs research on health insurance reform issues as they affect consumers and patients. Prior to joining the Georgetown faculty, Ms. Corlette was Director of Health Policy Programs at the National Partnership for Women & Families, where she provided policy expertise and strategic direction for the organization’s advocacy on health care reform, with a particular focus on insurance market reform, benefit design, and the quality and affordability of health care. Ms. Corlette is a member of the D.C. Bar and received her J.D. with high honors from the University of Texas at Austin and her undergraduate degree with honors from Harvard University.
Margaret Anderson
Margaret Anderson is the executive director of FasterCures, a Milken Institute center that works to speed up the timeline for new medicines to go from discovery to patients. She is a founding board member and past-president of the Alliance for a Stronger FDA and is a member of the NIH National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences (NCATS) Advisory Council and Cures Acceleration Network Review Board, the National Health Council Board of Directors, United for Medical Research Steering Committee, and the Institute of Medicine’s Forum on Drug Discovery, Development and Translation. Previously, Anderson was the deputy director and a team leader in the Center on AIDS & Community Health at the Academy for Educational Development, where she led public health projects. Anderson holds a bachelor’s degree from the University of Maryland and a master’s degree in science, technology, and public policy from George Washington University.
Katherine Hempstead
Katherine Hempstead, PhD, has directed the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation’s work on health insurance coverage since late 2013. In addition, Hempstead works on issues related to health care price transparency and value. Previously, Hempstead was director of the Center for Health Statistics in the New Jersey Department of Health and Senior Services. She also served as statistician/analyst in the Office of the Attorney General, New Jersey Department of Law and Public Safety, and as an assistant research professor at the Rutgers Center for State Health Policy, where she currently holds a visiting faculty position. She completed a postdoctoral fellowship at the Office of Population Research at Princeton University. Hempstead received a PhD in Demography and History from the University of Pennsylvania, where she also earned a BA in Economics and History.
Sam Gibbs
Sam Gibbs has been a Senior Vice President at eHealth, Inc. since joining the company in 2000. During his fourteen years in the health insurance industry, he has focused on helping companies understand the shifting healthcare/technology marketplace and plot company direction accordingly. He is currently President of Government Systems whose charter is to introduce new technology solutions for public and private health insurance Exchanges. In 2010 Mr. Gibbs served as the Program Manager for the launch of the health insurance Plan Finder on the first ACA website prior to the launch of www.healthcare.gov. Prior to working for eHealth, Gibbs served as Vice President and General Manager for Rand Worldwide, an engineering services company and was also founder, President and Chief Executive Officer of AVCOM Systems, Inc. He holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Aeronautical Technology from Arizona State University where he served for 10 years on the Dean of Engineering’s’ Advisory Board.
Lynn Quincy
Lynn Quincy is the Associate Director for Health Reform Policy with Consumers Union, the policy and advocacy division of Consumer Reports. Ms. Quincy works at the federal and state levels on a wide variety of policy issues, with a particular focus on health care costs, transparency, consumer protections, and consumers’ health insurance literacy. Her recent work includes a study that examines the use of “choice architecture” in health plan chooser tools. Ms. Quincy also serves as a consumer expert in ad hoc and more permanent venues such as the National Association of Insurance Commissioners. She has testified on several occasions in front of the U.S. House and Senate, and presents at professional conferences. Prior to joining Consumers Union, Ms. Quincy held senior positions with Mathematica Policy Research, Inc., the Institute for Health Policy Solutions and Watson Wyatt Worldwide (now Towers Watson). She holds a master’s degree in economics from the University of Maryland.
Gary Cohen
Gary M. Cohen is the Principal in Gary M Cohen Consulting, providing legal and strategic solutions to clients in the health care and insurance industries. Gary recently served as Deputy Administrator and Director of the Center for Consumer Information and Insurance Oversight in the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. In that position he was responsible for implementation of the Affordable Care Act in the private health insurance market. He has served as General Counsel of the California Health Benefit Exchange (CoveredCA), Chief of Staff to Congressman John Garamendi, and General Counsel of the California Department of Insurance. Before entering government service, Gary was Chief Counsel of Fireman’s Fund Insurance Company and a partner in the law firms of Sonnenschein, Nath & Rosenthal LLP (now Dentons LLP) and Keker & Van Nest, where he represented clients in complex commercial litigation and white-collar criminal defense. He is a graduate of Stanford Law School and Brown University.