Health care consultant Anya Rader-Wallack confirmed Tuesday that she is leaving her role with the Shumlin administration to take over Rhode Island’s health insurance exchange.
Wallack was instrumental in crafting Act 48, she served as the first chair of the Green Mountain Care Board and helped Gov. Peter Shumlin develop his now tabled single payer proposal. She currently serves as the chair of the Vermont Health Care Innovation Project, a role she will relinquish next week in order to take her new position.
The innovation project is supported by a $45 million federal grant that runs through 2016. Its purpose is to change how medical services are delivered and paid for by moving Vermont from fee-for-service medicine, which pays based on the volume of procedures, to a system that compensates providers based on health outcomes.
Shumlin described Wallack as “incredibly helpful” and a “huge asset” at a Tuesday press conference, but was limited in what he could say about her departure by an embargo on the announcement from Rhode Island Governor-elect Gina Raimondo.
“Having said that, I’m not going to count on her, and I understand she’s contemplating a change going forward,” Shumlin told reporters.
“If we don’t have Anya’s services, we will continue to do the work that we’ve got to get done to move to a more sensible health care system,” he added.
Lawrence Miller, chief of Health Care Reform, will take over Anya’s role as chair of the innovation project’s core team. He will also take over her work helping Vermont pursue a federal all-payer waiver.
The all-payer waiver would allow Vermont to set payment methods and rates for Medicare and allow it to bring the federal program in line with reforms currently underway at the state-level.
Her work on payment and delivery reform has always been central to Shumlin’s health reform agenda, but Wallack acknowledged that “the spotlight has been turned on it in a new way” following his single payer announcement.
“It’s a sad thing for me in that I care deeply about those efforts and want to see them succeed,” she said.
She decided to leave her position in Vermont because the new position will allow her to spend more time with her family in Rhode Island.
“It’s a great job opportunity a lot closer to home, which is good for me and my family right now,” added Wallack.
