Paul Ginsburg Appointed to the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission

The Government Accountability Office (GAO) announced the appointments of Paul Ginsburg, director of public policy at the Schaeffer Center, and four other individuals, as the newest members of the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission (MedPAC) last week.

MedPAC is an independent congressional agency that advises the US Congress on issues affecting the Medicare program such as payment considerations, access to care, and quality of care.

“I am enthusiastic about serving the public in this way,” said Ginsburg about his appointment. “This is a particularly exciting time to be involved in Medicare policy.”

Based in Washington, D.C., Ginsburg holds the Leonard D. Schaeffer Chair at the Brookings Institution and is the director of the newly formed Schaeffer Initiative for Innovation in Health Policy, a joint initiative between the Schaeffer Center for Health Policy & Economics at USC and the Brookings Institution. He also teaches courses in health policy and management in the USC Price School of Public Policy.

Prior to joining the University of Southern California, Ginsburg was the founding President of the Center for Studying Health System Change (HSC) from 1995 to the end of 2013. Before that, Ginsburg served as the founding Executive Director of MedPAC’s precursor, the Physician Payment Review Commission, was a Senior Economist at RAND, and served as Deputy Assistant Director at the Congressional Budget Office (CBO).

The commission was established in 1997 by Congress and is made up of 17 members who are appointed to three year terms. The commission produces reports twice a year detailing recommendations and analyses for improving Medicare.