Anne Gauthier, Senior Fellow, (202) 507-7586, agauthier@nashp.org

Anne Gauthier, Senior Program Director agauthier@nashp.org Anne Gauthier is a senior program director at the National Academy for State Health Policy, where she develops and manages a portfolio of projects on state roles in health reform and state efforts to improve health system performance. Anne serves as the Project Director for NASHP's technical assistance role in the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation's State Health Reform Assistance Network which provides states with essential resources to implement key health insurance coverage provisions of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA). She is also the Project Director for the State Health Exchange Leadership Network, a peer-to-peer learning community developed by NASHP with a grant from the Nathan Cummings Foundation. She serves as the Project Director for the Health Services and Resources Administration State Health Access Program policy assistance contract, which assists 13 states expand coverage to new populations, improve enrollment and retention and effect delivery and payment reforms, working with Medicaid, insurance commissioners, and governors' advisors. At NASHP she previously served as Project Director for a Commonwealth Fund project, Advancing State Health Performance: New State Roles, including studies of payment reform innovations, state roles in strengthening primary and chronic care, and accountable care organizations, with an emphasis on public and private collaboration (including Medicaid, state employee purchasers, community leaders, and private providers and payers). Prior to joining NASHP in July 2009, Anne was assistant vice president of The Commonwealth Fund and deputy director of the Fund's Commission on a High Performance Health System. She also directed the Fund's State Innovations which aims to improve state and national health system performance by supporting, stimulating, and spreading integrated, state-level strategies for expanding access to care and promoting high-quality, efficient care. Prior to joining the Fund in May 2005, she was vice president of Academy Health where she served as: program director for the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation's Changes in Health Care Financing and Organization initiative, a program that bridges the health policy and health services research communities through grant-making, convening, and the distribution of useable and timely information; senior advisor for the Foundation's State Coverage Initiative, which works with states to plan, execute and maintain insurance expansions; and a co-project director for a Fund project on administrative simplification in health care. Before joining Academy Health in 1989, she was senior researcher for the National Leadership Commission on Health Care, a private commission charged with developing a system-wide public/private strategy to control rising costs, improve the quality, appropriateness, and efficiency of care, and ensure universal access to a basic level of services. She held a position in the congressional Office of Technology Assessment from 1980 to 1986. Anne holds an AB in molecular biology from Princeton University and a MS in health administration from the University of Massachusetts School of Public Health.

Between now and the deadline, "states have a herculean task ahead of them with multiple decision points," says Anne Gauthier, senior analyst with the National Academy for State Health Policy. 'There will be leaders and followers, but every state will want to create an exchange that reflects its own environment and culture.

Anne Gauthier Senior Policy Director Anne K. Gauthier is senior policy director of the Fund's Commission on a High Performance Health System, based at AcademyHealth in Washington , D.C. The Commission aims to move the U.S. toward a health care system that achieves better access, improved quality, and greater efficiency, with particular focus on the most vulnerable due to income, race/ethnicity, health, or age. She is responsible for overseeing all Commission activities, including Commission meetings and site visits, a series of health policy briefings with the Alliance for Health Reform, an annual Congressional Staff Retreat and an annual Bipartisan Congressional Health Policy Conference; leading Commission members in identifying policy changes and recommending concrete steps that would facilitate movement towards a high-performance system in the U.S.; preparing a series of issue briefs and other publications on key strategies for achieving a high-performance health system; and presenting Commission-related work to appropriate public and private officials and the media. Prior to joining the Fund, she was vice president of AcademyHealth where she served as: program director for the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation's Changes in Health Care Financing and Organization initiative, a program that bridges the health policy and health services research communities through funding research, policy analysis and convening activities; as senior advisor for the Foundation's State Coverage Initiative, which works with states to plan, execute and maintain insurance expansions; as co-project director for a Fund project on administrative simplification in health care; and oversaw the research synthesis and information services functions. Before joining AcademyHealth in 1989, she was senior researcher for the National Leadership Commission on Health Care, a private commission charged with developing a system-wide public/private strategy to control rising costs, improve the quality, appropriateness, and efficiency of care, and ensure universal access to a basic level of services. She held a position in the congressional Office of Technology Assessment from 1980 to 1986. Ms. Gauthier holds an A.B. in molecular biology from Princeton University and an M.S. in health administration from the University of Massachusetts School of Public Health.