Penn professor named chair of congressional Medicare advisory commission

A Wharton School and Perelman School of Medicine professor was appointed Chair of the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission last month.

Amol Navathe, a senior fellow at Penn’s Leonard Davis Institute of Health Economics, will serve in the role until April 2029 after previously being a MedPAC commissioner and Vice Chair. MedPAC — an independent congressional agency — was created to “advise” the United States Congress on “issues affecting the Medicare program.” 

In an interview with The Daily Pennsylvanian, Navathe said that his previous MedPAC roles and his work at Penn served as a foundation for the upcoming position. Navathe received a Wharton Ph.D. in 2008 and subsequently a medical degree from Penn in 2010.

“The thing that is most exciting about it is that I will bring a perspective that includes that of being a frontline clinician — because I still see patients — being a researcher who studies Medicare, but also somebody who’s worked in industry, in the private sector quite a bit,” Navathe said.

The agency — which was established in 1997 — “provides information on access to care, quality of care, and other issues affecting Medicare.” The agency works with Congress primarily through biannual reports, as well as by commenting on proposed regulations from the Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services.

As MedPAC Chair, Navathe hopes to bridge the gap between the United States’ technological landscape and the healthcare industry while keeping Medicare affordable. He told the DP that one of his “key goals” in the position was to understand the “different policy approaches” that “improve the financial sustainability of the Medicare program in a way that really works for our seniors.”

“We can bring the latest technologies to benefit patients but do it in a financially responsible and financially sustainable way,” Navathe added. 

Navathe’s appointment process was led by the Government Accountability Office, an “independent, non-partisan agency” that serves Congress.

MedPAC also works with the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, the federal agency that administers national healthcare programs. According to Navathe, the “foundation of work to serve Congress can also be very helpful to CMS.”

Navathe said that his interest in health policy derives from a desire to understand the business aspect of medicine.

“I was fascinated with how clinicians and physicians play such a big role in impacting healthcare, and yet most clinicians don’t really have any training in the underlying economics of healthcare,” Navathe said. “The early part of my career was very motivated by a combination of getting that training myself.”

Navathe cited his Wharton Ph.D. advisor Mark Pauly — Bendheim Professor Emeritus of Health Care Management — as being part of a “wonderful tradition” of Penn faculty having an impact in health policy. Pauly, as Navathe said, worked at the Prospective Payment Assessment Commission — a “precursor” to MedPAC.

“It is a reflection of how Penn continues to be very influential in national policy and also a reflection of the types of opportunities that students get when they come to Penn,” Navathe said.