1) Interview with Rima Cohen, Counselor to the Underscretary of Health Policy on Friday. I thought that it went well. Rima was a Daschle staffer who has been Director fo HHS for the City of New York for the last few years (she knew Lynn Silver), who came down here on temporary assignment more than a year ago, and still commutes home to see her 6 year old daughter on a somewhat regular basis. She described an office that is involved in discussions with the White House, the ASPE, AHRQ and the NIH over comparative effectiveness research, works with Medicaid on the big State conflicts and Medicare on just about everything, and how a Fellow could make her life easier. Her big job right now, however, is preparing HHS to hit the ground running on health reform. She will be a player when that happens. She's worked with RWJ Fellows in the Senate so she knows the program pretty well. Another Counselor, Dora Hughes, is in the same office- it sounds like they work quite closely together.
As I said, the interview went well, and late Friday, I was invited to come and meet with Dora Hughes, so perhaps they are interested. It would be a place to get a broader view of the work of HHS than would the CMS placement, and would get me involved in a broader range of agencies. We will see.
2) Putting an offer on hold. I responded to CMS, and got a nice response back:
David,
Thanks for your note. We are excited at the possibilities for you coming to OL. You bring so many strengths that we would capitalize on and we have some pretty interesting substance for you to learn in the laws, regulations, and guidance of the Medicaid program as well as the Executive branch perspective working with Congress.
We look forward to hearing from you soon.
Regards,
Jennifer
From: KELLER,DAVID [mailto:david.keller@umassmemorial.org]
Sent: Friday, December 04, 2009 7:24 AM
To: Orris, Allison B. (CMS/OL)
Cc: Boulanger, Jennifer L. (CMS); Marie Michnich
Subject: Re: Great to meet with you today.
My apologies for the slow reply; we are in the midst of a 4 day course on Congressional procedure, which has left me a bit dazed, and slow to respond to email. I am excited by the opportunity to work with you and your team; it really sounds like you will be in the thick of the coming changes, and it would be a way for me to better understand what is going on, and to be able to make a substantial contribution to the evolving system. As you suggest, I am in the midst of “exploring other options”; I should be done with all of my currently scheduled interviews by the middle of next week, and will be sitting down with our Fellowship Director Marie Michnich to discuss all of my options before deciding on a final placement. I will get back to you soon with any questions I have, although I think that we discussed most of the important issues during my visit. Thanks again for opening your doors to our Fellowship, and for this chance to learn by doing.
David
So that can wait a week, while I sort out the rest of this stuff.
3) Senate Finance. Sent two e-mails to Andrew Hu, as mentioned above, but he was busy and I have not made any progress with them. But Marie says that she wants to get me in there, and that she will talk to Liz Fowler next week.
Like watching the Senate in session, I guess this is progess.
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