Anya Rader Wallack, one of Gov. Peter Shumlin’s most trusted health care advisors, is departing her job in Vermont as the leader of a federally funded payment reform project.
Rader Wallack inked a contract with the state last year to head up the three-year, $45 million “State Innovation Model” grant. Vermont was one of eight states to win the federal grants, which aim to encourage the development of state-based health care reforms that improve patient outcomes while simultaneously lowering costs.
Rader Wallack has served as head of a nine-person “core team” made up of representatives from entities most critical to the grant’s success, including hospitals, doctors and businesses.
She’s leaving to take a job as director of HealthSource RI, which is Rhode Island’s version of the federal health insurance exchange. Her last day on the job in Vermont will be next Tuesday; Rader Wallack is a resident of Rhode Island.
“And as much as I love Vermont and am committed to the efforts underway there, it’s a lot more practical to work where you live,” Rader Wallack said in a telephone interview Tuesday.
Rader Wallack had been commuting to Vermont from her home in Rhode Island for the better part of four years. Prior to working on the SIM grant, she served as chairwoman of the Green Mountain Care Board. Prior to that, she was the Shumlin administration’s top health care deputy, and played a pivotal role in the creation of the single-payer legislation passed in 2011.
"I think we've made great strides in both creating or fostering or supporting some innovative new organizations ... to better manage health and be better able to manage health care costs in the future." - Anya Radar Wallack
The SIM grant aims to cut costs and improve patient health by changing the way providers are compensated for treating people. RaderWallack says the effort, which uses “accountable care organizations” to change the ways in which hospitals and other providers interact, is still in its infancy.
“But I think we’ve made great strides in both creating or fostering or supporting some innovative new organizations that show great promise in terms of being able to better manage health and be better able to manage health care costs in the future,” she says. “Those are still sort of in the toddler stage, so there’s still a long way to go before we realize the full potential.”
As of Tuesday morning, Shumlin was still unaware of Rader Wallack’s career move. He said the state had been lucky to have her services over the past few years.
“We love having Anya work for us,” Shumlin said. “If we don’t have Anya’s services, we will continue doing to work that we’ve got to get done to move to a more sensible health care system."
Rader Wallack says the governor’s decision to abandon a single-payer system might impact the state’s ability to cover every Vermonter, and to address “lack of fairness” in how health care is paid for. But she said it shouldn’t impair the state’s ability to enact the kinds of payment reforms she says are needed to curb costs.
“In terms of improving the quality of care, in terms of improving coordination of care, and reducing inefficiencies, all of that can happen under any kind of financing system,” Rader Wallack says.
