WASHINGTON—The U.S. Government Accountability Office has appointed 19 members of a new center for comparative effectiveness research established by the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act.
The Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute will conduct research projects to determine the most cost-effective and efficacious medical treatments that should be covered by health insurance.
“The research to be developed by PCORI has the potential to improve the quality of health care for people across the nation,” Gene L. Dodaro, acting U.S. comptroller general and head of the GAO, said in a statement Thursday.
However, the research was one of the most controversial aspects of the health reform law, which critics contended could lead to health care rationing.
In addition to the GAO-appointed members, the director of the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality and the director of the National Institutes of Health, or their designees, also will serve on the PCORI board.
PPACA also directs the comptroller general to appoint not more than 15 members to a methodology committee of PCORI. A Federal Register notice calling for nominations to this committee is expected to be issued by Sept. 30, the GAO said.
Members of the PCORI board will serve six years and may be reappointed for another six years. Board members' terms are scattered, with the first set of appointments having two-, four- or six-year terms.
Commissioners whose first terms expire in September 2016 are:
Dr. Eugene Washington, vice chancellor, UCLA Health Sciences, and dean of the David Geffen School of Medicine at the University of California Los Angeles. Dr. Washington will serve as the chair of the PCORI Board of Governors.Steven Lipstein, president and CEO, BJC HealthCare, a nonprofit health care delivery system based in St. Louis. Mr. Lipstein will serve as the vice chair of the PCORI Board of Governors.Christine Goertz, vice chancellor for research and health policy at the Palmer College of Chiropractic and Palmer Center for Chiropractic Research in Davenport, Iowa.Dr. Sharon Levine, associate executive director for Permanente Medical Group of Northern California, a large multispecialty group practice within Oakland, Calif.-based Kaiser Permanente's integrated delivery system.Ellen Sigal, chairwoman and founder of Friends of Cancer Research, a cancer research think tank and advocacy organization in Arlington, Va.Dr. Harlan Weisman, chief science and technology officer, medical devices and diagnostics, for Johnson & Johnson in New Brunswick, N.J. Dr. Robert Zwolak, a vascular surgeon at Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center and professor of surgery at the Dartmouth Medical School in Hanover, N.H.Commissioners whose first term will expire in September 2014 are:
Lawrence Becker, director, strategic partnerships and alliances, at Xerox Corp. in Stamford, Conn.Dr. Arnold Epstein, the John H. Foster professor and chair of the Department of Health Policy and Management at Harvard University School of Public Health in Cambridge, Mass., and practicing internist at Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston.Andrew Imparato, president and CEO of the Washington-based American Assn. of People with Disabilities.Dr. Robert Jesse, principal deputy undersecretary for health and national program director for cardiology in the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs in Washington.Dr. Freda Lewis-Hall, chief medical officer and senior vp of the Pfizer Inc. medical division in New York.Dr. Grayson Norquist, professor and chairman of the Department of Psychiatry and Human Behavior at the University of Mississippi Medical Center in Jackson, Miss.Commissioners whose first term will expire in September 2012 are:
Debra Barksdale, associate professor, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Nursing.Kerry Barnett, executive vp of corporate services and chief legal officer at the Regence Group, a Blue Cross & Blue Shield Assn. affiliate located in the Northwest.Dr. Allen Douma, CEO of Empower L.L.C. and a member of the board of directors of American Assn. of Retired People.Leah Hole-Curry, program director for the health technology assessment program at the Washington State Health Care Authority in Olympia, Wash.Dr. Harlan Krumholz, Harold H. Hines Jr. professor of medicine and epidemiology and public health at Yale University School of Medicine in New Haven, Conn.Dr. Richard E. Kuntz, senior vp and chief scientific, clinical and regulatory officer of Minneapolis-based Medtronic Inc.
