Graduate School
Harvard Medical School

Undergraduate School
Princeton University

Mentor
Phyllis Rappaport, Chair, Phyllis and Jerome Lyle Rappaport Charitable Foundation

Agency
Massachusetts Division of Health Care Finance and Policy

Supervisor
Amy Smalarz, Director of the Performance Management Group

Description of Fellowship
This summer, Michael worked at the Massachusetts Division of Health Care Finance and Policy in the Health Systems Policy group. There, he developed and delivered a comprehensive briefing on health care quality measurement and reporting for the Commissioner and later delivered it to the entire Division. This research will be used heavily by the agency in future research, analysis, and public discussion on health care quality and cost. The Commissioner, in particular, will draw on this work in his position on the state Health Care Quality and Cost Council and also when he begins his chairmanship of a forthcoming state committee on quality measurement. Additionally, he researched and wrote a white paper on accountable care organizations (ACOs), a new model of organizing and paying for health care, recommended for implementation in Massachusetts by the 2009 Special Commission on Health Care Payment.