Wallack leaving HealthSource RI, appointed Medicaid director

ANYA RADER WALLACK, DIRECTOR of HealthSource RI, is leaving the position to become head of the state's Medicaid program. She is shown at a PBN Summit held earlier this year on health care reform and the insurance exchange.  / PBN FILE PHOTO/RUPERT WHITELY
ANYA RADER WALLACK, DIRECTOR of HealthSource RI, is leaving the position to become head of the state's Medicaid program. She is shown at a PBN Summit held earlier this year on health care reform and the insurance exchange. / PBN FILE PHOTO/RUPERT WHITELY

(Updated 1:32 p.m.)
PROVIDENCE – Anya Rader Wallack is leaving her position as director of HealthSource RI almost a year after she took the job.
Wallack has been appointed to lead the state’s Medicaid program, taking over for Dr. Deidre Gifford, who left to pursue opportunities in Washington, D.C.
Wallack is starting the new position Nov. 2.
Zachary Sherman, HealthSource RI’s chief of staff, will serve as interim director while a search is under way for a new director.
“We need to keep focused on our efforts to improve outcomes for the 260,000 Rhode Islanders enrolled in Medicaid, while also providing taxpayers and businesses with more predictability. Anya’s years of leadership in health policy will ensure that Rhode Island remains a national model for how states can improve quality, achieve better outcomes and drive down costs,” Gov. Gina M. Raimondo said in a statement.

Elizabeth H. Roberts, R.I.’s Secretary of the Executive Office of Health and Human Services, said Wallack “stepped up and led a successful effort to make HealthSource RI sustainable and responsive to Rhode Island’s unique health care needs.”
“She has a national reputation as a health care leader who understands how to deliver better, more affordable care,” Roberts said. “As we look to build on the successful efforts to reinvent Medicaid and foster an environment for health care innovation, we will lean on Anya’s experience to implement innovative, sustainable reforms that improve health outcomes in every part of our state.”

In a press release from the state OHHS, Wallack was praised for “rightsizing” the exchange’s budget from $52 million under prior leadership to $30 million in fiscal 2016. The release also noted that the state’s uninsured rate has been cut by more than half – to 5 percent – under her leadership and because of the state’s embrace of Medicaid expansion and a state-run exchange through the Affordable Care Act.
Wallack, in prepared remarks, said she is excited to take on the new position.

“I am very excited to take on this new role. Under Governor Raimondo’s leadership and Secretary Roberts’ direction, Rhode Island’s Medicaid program has established a strong foundation for sustainable reform,” Wallack said.

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Wallack brought a background in state health care policy to the position at HealthSource RI, the state’s health insurance exchange.

Prior to her role at HSRI, Rader Wallack served as president of Arrowhead Health Analytics, an independent consulting firm that specialized in state-based health reform.
She also served from 2011-2013 as the first chair of the Green Mountain Care Board in Vermont, a regulatory agency that oversees insurance rates, hospital budgets and health care payment innovation. She also was a member and chair of the Cost Containment Committee of the Massachusetts Health Care Quality and Cost Council from 2008-2010.

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