Paul Ginsburg Appointed to the AHRQ National Advisory Council

Paul Ginsburg, Director of Public Policy at the Schaeffer Center, has been appointed to the National Advisory Council for the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ).  The Council provides advice and recommendations to the director of AHRQ and the Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) on priorities for a national health services research agenda. Founded in 1990, the National Advisory Council consists of twenty-one members from the private sector and seven ex-officio members from other federal agencies.   AHRQ supports research to produce evidence that improves the quality, safety, efficiency, and equitable access to healthcare.

“The Council is undertaking important strategic discussions that I look forward to participating in,” said Ginsburg about the opportunity.  He went on to reflect, “Being appointed to the National Advisory Council is somewhat of a homecoming to me, having served at the predecessor agency to AHRQ in my first job after completing my doctorate.”

Ginsburg also holds the Norman Topping Chair in Medicine and Public Policy at the USC Sol Price School of Public Policy.  While based in Washington, DC, he collaborates with Schaeffer Center faculty and staff by providing research guidance with an eye toward key public policy considerations.  From 1995 to the end of 2013 he was the founding President of the Center for Studying Health System Change (HSC).

Prior to HSC, Ginsburg served as the founding Executive Director of the Physician Payment Review Commission (now the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission). Widely regarded as highly influential, the Commission developed the Medicare physician payment reform proposal that was enacted by the Congress in 1989. Ginsburg was a Senior Economist at RAND and served as Deputy Assistant Director at the Congressional Budget Office (CBO). Before that, he served on the faculties of Duke and Michigan State Universities. He earned his doctorate in economics from Harvard University.

The private-sector members of the National Advisory Council serve three-year terms and represent health care plans, providers, purchasers, consumers, and researchers.