Vladeck takes over as Health Care Financing Administration chief - Bruce C. Vladeck

Health Care Financing Review, Spring, 1993

Bruce C. Vladeck, former president of the United Hospital Fund of New York, recently took office as Administrator of the Health Care Financing Administration (HCFA), which runs the country's Medicare and Medicaid programs.

Dr. Vladeck was president of the United Hospital Fund, a non-profit philanthropy and health services research organization, for 10 years. He is a national expert on health care and has long played a leading role in analyzing, developing, and administering health services. Dr. Vladeck was also a member of the Prospective Payment Assessment Commission and chaired its Subcommittee on Hospital Inpatient Services. A former director of the New York City Health and Hospitals Corporation, he is the author of Unloving Care: The Nursing Home Tragedy and has published extensively in the area of health care.

HCFA is responsible for the Medicare program, Federal participation in the Medicaid program, and a variety of other health care quality assurance programs. It combines health financing and quality assurance programs within a single agency.

"I am honored by the President's action and I am excited by the prospect of being part of an administration committed to reforming the country's health care system," Dr. Vladeck said. "Nothing could be more rewarding than being a part of the team that will reduce health care costs and ensure that every one throughout the country will have access to affordable, high quality health care."

Howard Smith, chairman of the United Hospital Fund's board of directors, said, "Our loss is the country's gain. The Fund is dedicated to ensuring that all New Yorkers have access to quality health care and it gives us great satisfaction that Dr. Vladeck will bring this ideal to the national arena."

The United Hospital Fund, founded in 1879, addresses critical issues affecting voluntary hospitals and health care in New York City. The Fund is active in grantmaking, health services research, and policy development in New York City's health care.

Dr. Vladeck received a B.A. degree f rom Harvard College, and an M.A. and Ph.D. in political science from the University of Michigan. Formerly an assistant vice president of The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, Dr. Vladeck was a trustee of the Kaiser Family Foundation and chaired the Advisory Committee of the Pew Health Policy Fellows Program. He was also cochairman of the New York State Council on Health Care Financing and a member of the New York State AIDS Advisory council.

For more information, contact Carla Fine, public information manager, United Hospital Fund at (212) 645-2500.

Proposals Requested in Cardiovascular Project

The Health Care Financing Administration (HCFA) issued a request for proposals on December 18,1992, to conduct pilots of the Cooperative Cardiovascular Project (CCP) in four States. The CCP is a national collaborative effort between HCFA, peer, review organizations (PROS), physician and hospital organizations, and other groups sharing an interest in three goals:

* To improve processes of care and outcomes

comes of care for patients hospitalized

for acute- myocardial infarction, coronary

artery bypass grafting, or percutaneous

transluminal coronary angioplasty.

* To demonstrate and refine a new way

to use PROs to improve the processes

and outcomes of care.

* To demonstrate that the participating

organization can cooperate effectively

in improving care.

Under the CCP, PROs will collect data on patterns of care and patterns of outcomes for these cardiovascular conditions and work with hospitals, medical staffs, and health care groups to use these data to promote improvement in care.

The CCP has two project phases: a preparatory phase, in which a number of parallel activities prepare PROs to collect data and prepare hospitals and their medical staffs to use them; and an implementation phase, in which PROs actually provide data, help to interpret data, and assist hospitals in developing action plans to improve care. HCFA anticipates that this pilot project will begin in the spring of 1993 and be conducted over a 15-month period.

For more information, contact Diane Merriman at (410) 966-7237.