[G]ov. Peter Shumlin has appointed his director of health care reform to an open seat on the Green Mountain Care Board, which regulates hospital budgets and health insurance prices.
Shumlin announced Robin Lunge’s appointment Wednesday in a news release. Lunge is taking the seat that Dr. Allan Ramsay, a family doctor and founding member of the regulatory board, vacated when his term ended Sept. 30.
She starts Nov. 28, according to the release, which cites her “deep knowledge of federal and Vermont health care law and policy” and her help rolling out the Affordable Care Act, which brought health insurance to more than 20,000 Vermonters.
Lunge has been the director of health care reform since 2011 and was a key player in the two years of negotiations that led to an agreement for a new health care payment model in Vermont — called all-payer — that the Shumlin and Obama administrations signed in October.
From 2003 to 2011, Lunge worked as a nonpartisan lawyer for the Legislature, specializing in health care, human services and Medicaid issues. Prior to that she worked at the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, a think tank in Washington, D.C.
“I cannot think of anyone more uniquely qualified or better prepared to join the Green Mountain Care Board and complete the important health care reform work ahead,” Shumlin said in the release. “There is no one who has a better grasp on where we’ve been and where we need to go when it comes to health care reform in Vermont.”
Lunge said in an interview that she is looking forward to sitting on the board because of its regulatory role and because it works from an independent perspective. She said she prefers being away from the politics of health care reform.
“As a lawyer by training, working in that kind of (independent) role really suits my personality,” she said. “I liked to listen to all the perspectives.”
The Legislature created the board in 2011 when it passed Act 48 to create a single-payer health care system in Vermont. The board took over several duties from the now-defunct Health Care Administration and was made responsible for overseeing single-payer.
After the Shumlin administration abandoned its push for single-payer, the board spent two years negotiating the all-payer model. It aims to create a single health care system in Vermont in which doctors and hospitals will be paid for the quality of their care instead of the number of procedures they perform.
Under the new model, the board will become the main regulator for a single accountable care organization — either the Vermont Care Organization, which serves doctors working for hospitals, community health centers, or private companies; or OneCare Vermont, which includes hospital-employed doctors.
At the Office of Health Care Reform within the Agency of Administration, Lunge coordinated efforts within Shumlin’s Cabinet and with the Green Mountain Care Board. The other key player there is Lawrence Miller, the chief of health care reform.
“I think that for the folks who have really worked with me, I think they understand that I approach my work from a perspective of trying to listen to everyone’s concerns, make sure I understand all the different angles of something and take different practices into consideration,” Lunge said.
She will work 32 hours a week with an annual salary of $96,678. The term will be six years.
Lunge’s current salary as director of health care reform is $100,963.
