Thanks and Congratulations to Sarah Iselin

We want to extend our warmest thanks and congratulations to Sarah Iselin who will be leaving her job as the Commissioner of the Division of Health Care Finance and Policy at the end of the year to take over the helm of the Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts Foundation.

Sarah’s leadership, vision and in depth understanding of the complicated health finance system have made her an invaluable resource and public servant for the people of the Commonwealth. Health Care For All has been grateful for Sarah’s embrace of transparency and her openness to focusing on the needs of vulnerable consumers who languish at the margins of our health care system. She arrived at DHCFP in 2007 from the BCBSMAF having shepherded the Foundation’s Roadmap to Coverage initiative, and she will leave the government having lead the effort that has resulted in the state’s Roadmap to Cost Containment. The former helped build momentum for the enactment of health reform, and it is our sincere hope that the most recent Roadmap will propel the current debate on payment reform, cost containment and care coordination forward so that it results in better coordinated care and lower costs for consumers.

Being Commissioner of a mostly unknown, but remarkably powerful, agency is not glamorous work. But Sarah’s reach has been vast, and her effect profound. She articulated an ambitious agenda for DHCFP that included providing the Commonwealth with meaningful statistics and measures of the effects of health reform. She has also laid the groundwork for understanding our health care cost trends and it is our sincere hope that what she has initiated will continue in her absence.

We are excited about Sarah returning to the Blue Cross Blue Shield Foundation where as president she will be able to combine her experience, broad perspective and passion for improving our health care system. Congratulations to the Foundation and to Sarah.
Amy Whitcomb Slemmer, Esq.
Executive Director