Medicare News
| For Immediate Release: | Contact: |
| Thursday, July 06, 2000 | CMS Office of Public Affairs 202-690-6145 |
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WAKE FOREST UNIVERSITY PROFESSOR/PHYSICIAN SELECTED AS MEDICARE SCHOLAR FOR GERIATRICIANS
HCFA Administrator Nancy-Ann DeParle announced today that Paul McGann, a physician and teacher at Wake Forest University School of Medicine, will be the first Medicare Health Policy Scholar in a new program to encourage and develop health care policy experts on Medicare issues.
"We are very pleased to have Dr. Paul McGann join us as the first Medicare Health Policy Scholar," DeParle said. "Dr. McGann brings to HCFA the kind of experience and perspective we want in our scholarship program. We've brought more physicians to the HCFA staff and placed them in key positions, and the Medicare Health Policy Scholars will build on that expertise."
"Dr. McGann will contribute important insights to our work here at HCFA in health care policy and be able to take back an enhanced understanding of how our programs deliver high quality care to the millions of Medicare beneficiaries," said Jeffrey Kang, M.D., a geritrician who is director of HCFA's Office of Clinical Standards and Quality and the agency's chief clinical officer.
Beginning Sept. 1, 2000, Dr. McGann will work with high-level Medicare staff at HCFA's Baltimore headquarters on policy-related issues. At Wake Forest he is clinical director of the university's J. Paul Sticht Center on Aging.
"During my time in this program, I hope to gain a better understanding of how research outcomes can have a direct impact on health care policy development at the federal level," McGann said. "I believe we have enough knowledge of geriatric medicine at the present time to implement cost-effective, efficient care systems for older people, even those with complicated health care needs."
Medicare provides health care benefits for more than 39 million Americans, most of them age 65 and older.
The scholarship program was created earlier this year by HCFA, the federal agency that runs Medicare, and the American Geriatrics Society, a professional organization dedicated to improving geriatrics training and health care for older people. AGS assists in the selection process. HCFA makes the final selection and funds the program.
Chosen scholars for the program spend six months to one year at HCFA's Baltimore headquarters and then return to research and teaching at major graduate-level institutions. The program will support at least one academic scholar per year.
"Scholars in the program learn through first-hand experience the challenges and opportunities of the Medicare program, and HCFA will benefit by having geriatrician scholars working with our staff professionals," DeParle said.
