THE WHITE HOUSE

Office of Communications

         HEALTH PROFESSIONALS TO REVIEW CLINTON PROPOSAL
                          AS IT DEVELOPS

The White House has brought in a new group of doctors, nurses, and other practicing health professionals to critically review the work of the President's Health Care Task Force.

Since the beginning of the process, more than one hundred health professionals -- including more than sixty doctors -- have been involved in developing policy options. This new group will be called on to provide an outside critique. Members of the health professionals review group have not participated in developing health reform proposals for the Administration.

The group will meet for a minimum of six days to conduct an intensive, critical review of working group proposals. To assess the effect of different policy options on doctors' offices, hospitals and health care settings, they will meet with working group members and question how reform will affect the delivery of care.

"We're not going to be able to please everyone, but we want to make sure that the plan goes through a careful review process," said Hillary Rodham Clinton, chair of the Task Force.

The group includes a family practitioner from rural Iowa, a Kansas pharmacist, and a hospital adminstrator in New Mexico, as well as physicians at the nation's leading medical centers.

The group was chosen with racial, ethnic, and geographical diversity in mind, and there was a premium placed on getting a group with a variety of clinical experiences.

Members include Arnold Relman, M.D., former editor of the New England Journal of Medicine, Jack Lewin, M.D., architect of Hawaii's health plan, Florence July, R.N., a critical care nurse from The Creek Nation, Oklahoma, and Patricia Kennedy Scott, a hospital administrator from Detroit.

In its diversity of backgrounds and depth of clinical experience, the group is unprecedented.

"The practical test for implementation of any health plan must be a critical review by health professionals and the patients they serve," said Ira Magaziner, the director of the Health Care Task Force.

A list of the 47 health professionals on the group follows. They are legally considered special government employees, although they are not being paid for their work. HEALTH PROFESSIONALS REVIEW GROUP

Stephen C. Gleason, DO
Chair, Health Professionals Review Group Chief Medical Officer, Mercy Clinic System Family Practice
Des Moines, Iowa

Irwin Redlener, MD
Vice Chair, Health Professionals Review Group Chief, Community Pediatrics, Montefiore Medical Center Pediatrician
Bronx, New York

Pat Ford-Roegner, RN, MSW
Vice Chair, Health Professionals Review Group Health Consultant
Atlanta, Georgia

Maria del Rosario Aguirre, MD Pediatrician
San Antonio, Texas

Betty Ahlgren, RN Staff Nurse
Bellevue, Washington

Richard Barr, MHA President, Presbyterian Health Care Services Albuquerque, New Mexico

David Blumenthal, MD Chief, Health Policy Research & Development, Massachusetts General Hospital, Internist Boston, Massachusetts

Rick Boxer, MD Urologist
Milwaukee, Wisconsin

Gwendolyn Braxton, RN, MSN Assistant Academic Vice President, Delaware State College Dover, Delaware

Benjamin Chu, MD, MPH Senior Vice President for Medical & Professional Affairs, New York City Health & Hospitals Corporation New York, New York

Jerome Connolly, PT Physical Therapist
Billings, Montana

LC Dorsey, DSW, LCSW
Director, Delta Health Center Mt Bayou, Mississippi

Barbara Fassbinder, RN, BSN Nurse Consultant
Monona, Iowa

Kevin Fickenscher, MD Associate Dean, Michigan State University Medical School Family Practice Kalamazoo, Michigan

Janet Freedman, MD New York University Medical Center
Rehabilitation Medicine
Mt Kisco, New York

Stephen H. Gorin, PhD Assistant Professor of Social Work
University of New Hampshire
Canterbury, New Hampshire

Pedro Jose Greer, MD
Asst Dean of Homeless and Poverty Medicine University of Miami
Internist
Miami, Florida

John Hatch, PhD Professor, School of Public Health, University of North Carolina Chapel Hill, North Carolina

Lester Hosto, PhD
Community Pharmacist, Arkansas Board of Pharmacy Little Rock, Arkansas

Marshall Jackson, EMT Trauma Technician
Upper Marlborough, Maryland

Gloria Johnson-Powell, MD
Professor of Clinical Psychiatry, Harvard Medical School Boston, Massachusetts

Florence July, RN, BSN, CRRN Creek Nation Community Hospital
Okemah, Oklahoma

Jerilynn Kaibel, DC
Chiropractor
San Bernardino, California

Pat Kennedy-Scott, JD, BA Vice President and CEO, Michigan Healthcare Corp. Detroit, Michigan

Mi Ja Kim, RN, PhD Dean, College of Nursing, Univ. Illinois at Chicago Chicago, Illinois

Luella Klein, MD Professor of OB/GYN, Emory University Atlanta, Georgia

Andrew Kumpuris, MD Cardiologist
Little Rock, Arkansas

Lance Laurence, PhD Psychologist, University of Tennessee - Knoxville Knoxville, Tennessee

Judy Leavitt, RN, Med
Maternal & Child Health Professor, Tomkins Cortland Community College (ret.)
Ithaca, New York

Jack Lewin, MD Director, Hawaii Department of Health
Family Practice
Honolulu, Hawaii

Shelia McGuire, DDS, PhD Dentist
President, Iowa Health Research Institute Boone, Iowa

Kathryn Mershon, RN, MSN
Nurse Administrator
Louisville, Kentucky

Pat Montoya, RN, MA Executive Director, New Mexico Health Resources Albuquerque, New Mexico

Jeff Morris, MD, MPH Ophthalmic Surgeon
San Diego, California

Mary Mundinger, RN, DrPH Dean, Columbia University School of Nursing Family Nurse Practitioner
New York, New York

Arnold Relman, MD Editor in Chief Emeritus, New England Journal of Medicine Professor of Medicine, Harvard Medical School Boston, Massachusetts

Susan Reynolds, MD Emergency Medicine
Malibu, California

Marily Rhudy, RPh
Pharmacist
Lawrence, Kansas

Elena Rios, MD, MSPH State of California, Office of Health Planning & DevelopmentCalifornia

Lawrence Scherr, MD, MACP Associate Dean, Cornell Medical College Manhasset, New York

Julia R. Scott, RN National Black Women's Health Project
Washington, DC

Kenneth Shine, MD President, Institute of Medicine
Cardiologist
Washington, DC

Pat Starck, RN, DSN
Dean, School of Nursing, University of Texas-Houston Health Science Center
Advanced Practice, Psychiatric/Mental Health Houston, Texas

Reed V. Tuckson, MD President, Drew University of Medicine and Science Los Angeles, California

Stanley Yarnell, MD Psychiatrist
San Francisco, California

Kneeland Youngblood, MD Emergency Medicine
Dallas, Texas