This is an archive page. The links are no longer being updated.
Date: Monday, April 22, 1996 FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Contact: HCFA Press Office 202)690-6145
HHS Secretary Donna E. Shalala today announced three new members and one reappointment to the Practicing Physicians Advisory Council.
The new appointees, who were selected from 73 individuals nominated by more than 45 national provider organizations, are
Wayne R. Carlsen, O.D., Athens, Ohio; Mary T. Herald, M.D., Westfield, N.J.; and Susan Schooley, M.D., Detroit, Mich. They replace three members whose terms expired on Feb. 28. All members serve four-year terms.
Marie G. Kuffner, M.D., of Los Angeles, Calif., was reappointed to a second term. The new appointees and Dr. Kuffner were sworn in today by Bruce C. Vladeck, administrator of the Health Care Financing Administration, at the council's quarterly meeting in Washington, D.C.
The three members whose terms expired are Isadore Rosenfeld, M.D.; Richard B. Tompkins, M.D., and James C. Waites, M.D.
"These physicians have served the council well and we thank them for their outstanding efforts on behalf of the Medicare and Medicaid programs," Secretary Shalala said.
The 15-member council, established by Congress in 1990, meets quarterly to advise the HHS secretary on proposed changes in regulations and carrier manual instructions which relate to physicians' services under Medicare and Medicaid.
"Two of our new appointees and Dr. Kuffner, who has served the council so ably during the past four years, are devoting their talents and energies to bringing improved health care to our large cities," Shalala said. "The other appointee serves the medical needs of the elderly living in the rural Midwest. And they all are involved in the teaching and training of new doctors at some of our nation's finest medical centers."
Under the 1990 law, the advisory council must include both Medicare participating and nonparticipating physicians, and physicians practicing in rural and underserved urban areas. All members must have submitted at least 250 claims for physician services under Medicare in the previous year.
"These four members bring diverse backgrounds to the council, including expertise in geriatric medicine and medical care for inner city children and adults," Vladeck said.
Carlsen, the council's only osteopathic physician, is head of the geriatric section of the Ohio University College of Osteopathic Medicine in Athens, Ohio. He also is secretary/treasurer of the American College of Osteopathic Internists' geriatric subsection and an executive committee member of the Case Western Reserve Geriatric Education Center.
Carlsen, who has extensive nursing home experience, provides ambulatory and home care to elderly persons living in rural southeastern Ohio. He graduated from Fairleigh Dickinson University in Florham Park, N.J., and received his doctor of osteopathy degree from the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey in Camden.
Herald, a specialist in internal medicine and endocrinology, is governor of New Jersey's chapter of the American College of Physicians and an associate clinical professor of medicine at Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons in New York. She also is a former instructor in medicine at Cornell University Medical College in New York.
Herald is a member, and former president and chairman, of the board of trustees for the Camp Nejeda Foundation, which is New Jersey's camp for children with diabetes. A graduate of the College of New Rochelle in New York, she received her medical degree from the New Jersey College of Medicine and Dentistry in Newark.
Schooley is a member of the board of governors of the Henry Ford Health Sciences Center and chair of the Henry Ford Health System's department of family practice. Ford Health System, based in Detroit, is a major group practice organization in southeast Michigan.
A medical expert on child abuse, Schooley directs four inner-city primary care centers and a program for substance-addicted pregnant women. She is board-certified in family practice medicine.
Schooley received her bachelor's degree from Salem (Mass.) State College and her medical degree from the University of Massachusetts Medical School in Worcester. She has taught at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, and at the universities of Michigan, North Carolina and Massachusetts.
Since 1994, Kuffner, an anesthesiologist, has been chief of staff at the UCLA Medical Center in Los Angeles. Prior to that, she was vice chief of staff at UCLA for two years.
Kuffner is a member of HCFA's Fraud and Abuse Task Force, helping to develop program integrity initiatives. She also is a co-director of a program, funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, to increase care to the medically underserved in Los Angeles.
Kuffner serves as a delegate to the American Medical Association's House of Delegates and as vice chair of the California Medical Association's board of trustees. In 1992 and 1993, she was president of the Los Angeles County Medical Association.
A graduate of Marymount College in Tarrytown, N.Y., Kuffner received her medical degree from the University of Texas at Houston.