Activities of the Fellows and Senior Fellows of the Coastal Research Group: Dr David Sundwall is Vice Chair of Federal Panel on Medicaid and CHIP Payment and Access

Last Updated on April 16, 2022 by Lee Burnett, DO, FAAFP

The Government Accounting Office (GAO) is assigned the function of appointing the members of several key committees with responsibility for advising Congress on the federal health reform legislation passed in 2010. The GAO also appoints members to certain other advisory bodies that were in place before the 2010 legislation was enacted.

Last year, the Children’s Health insurance Program (CHIP) Reauthorization Act of 2009 was enacted, and with it a 15 person panel was created –  the Medicaid and CHIP Payment and Access Commission (MACPAC).

David Sundwall, MD, MPH, a Senior Fellow of the Coastal Research Group, has been appointed the MACPAC Vice Chairman. He will serve initially through December 31, 2011, when he is eligible for reappointment.

Dr Sundwall currently serves as Executive Director of the Utah Department of Health and is that state’s Health Commissioner. Previously he had served as Administrator of the Health Resources and Services Administration within the United States Department of Health and Human Services under President Ronald Reagan, and Assistant Surgeon General in the United States Public Health Service Commissioned Corps.

He also served as Health and Human Resources staff of the Senate Labor and Human Resources Committee, when Senator Ted Kennedy (Massachusetts) was Chair and  Senator Orrin Hatch (Utah) was Ranking Minority committee member.

Dr Sundwall is a member of the plenary faculty of the Twenty-Second National Conference on Primary Health Care Access, April 18-20, 2011 in San Francisco, where he is scheduled to give a presentation on relevant issues under MACPAC’s purview and the progress of the Commission’s work.