David Shulkin
David Shulkin serves as the Under Secretary of Health for the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs. He was nominated by President Obama on March 18, 2015 to serve as the Undersecretary of Health and confirmed by the U.S. Senate in June of 2015. The Undersecretary of health is the chief executive of the nations largest integrated health care system.
Career
Shulkin used to be the President and Chief Executive Officer of Beth Israel Medical Center in New York City. He also served as President of Morristown Medical Center and the Atlantic Health System accountable Care Organization. He received a BA from Hampshire College in 1982, and a MD from Medical College of Pennsylvania in 1986; he then did his internship at Yale School of Medicine, and his residency and fellowship in General Medicine at the University of Pittsburgh Presbyterian Medical Center.
He has been Chief Medical Officer of the University of Pennsylvania Health System, the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, Temple University Hospital, and the Medical College of Pennsylvania Hospital.
His other academic positions have included Chairman of Medicine and Vice Dean at Drexel University College of Medicine, and Professor of Medicine at Albert Einstein School of Medicine. Shulkin has been the editor of Journal of Clinical Outcomes Management and Hospital Physician, and has been on the editorial boards of several journals, including Journal of the American Medical Association. He founded and served as the Chairman and CEO of DoctorQuality, Inc a consumer-oriented information service.
Honors
- Fellow of the American College of Physicians
- Senior Fellow at the Leonard Davis Institute in Health Economics at the University of Pennsylvania.
- Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Clinical Scholar at the University of Pennsylvania.
- National Health Policy Fellow, U.S. Senate Committee on Aging
- Named one of the country's top Health care leaders for the next century by Modern Healthcare,[1]
- Ranked as International Leader in Health Care Award by the Healthcare Forum.[2]
- Named One of the Hundred Most Powerful in Healthcare (ranked #86) by Modern Healthcare (2008).
Published works
- Questions Patients Need to Ask by David J. M.D. Shulkin (Paperback - Nov 24, 2008)
- He has also written 25 peer-reviewed journal articles, and numerous other professional publications.
References
- ↑ . Healthcare Leaders for the Next Century"- Modern Healthcare September 15, 1997
- ↑ Emerging Leaders"- Healthcare Forum Journal- July/August 1998
- "Recognizing Quality"- Disease Management Protocols at Core of A Pennsylvania Hospital's Award Winning Approach".- Modern Healthcare February 2, 1998
- "What Quality Measurements Miss"- Managed Care Interface March 1997.
- "Ten Ways Technology Can Make You Money" - TIME Magazine (Guide to Personal Technology)- April 1998
On April 13th I wrote about problems we still have at the VA. Specifically about the Non-VA care or fee basis department at the VA hospital in Fort Wayne. In that letter I mentioned that I would have to end up payinmg for care that VA had authorized an order #102463-90. As of this date VA has still not paid. Here's where I have to state that VA has CYA'ed themselves with what is called: "not the right modifiers or codes". There are three modifiers that non-VA care vendors are to put on the bills in order to be paid. 1)Speech Therapy 2) Physical Therapy and 3) Occupational therapy. Now if you would obtain the order I was given in November it states I was authorized to have 8 sessions of DEEP MUSCLE MASSAGE to break up the scar tissue in my back left by back surgery. Mind you this massage is not gentle and it is designed to break up the scar tissue. Since none of the modifiers listed above applied to the procedures I had done the Doctor at the facility I went to could not "fudge" and just use one of the modifiers listed. The Stuzman's representative even mentioned that VA told him it would be illegal to use a modifier without the specific professionals. The Doctor entered the specific procedures listed on the authorization order from VA, "Deep Muscle Massage". The non-va care department notified Representative Stutzman and Senator Coats that the problem was the facility was not using the right modifier and that VA was not at fault. The VA just let ME pay. When the Stitzman VA representative in Fort Wayne got involved the non-va care department did some great stalling. Here is where I need to digress a little and mention that in the military if you upset the "apple cart" your pay voucher and money for the next three months would end up in Timbuktu and when found out they would say "OOPS". Regina Campbell Ext 73889 said "oops" then said the facility needed to resubmit. Well, needless to say Mr. Stutzman's rep would not accept this and found the direct non-VA regional manager in MI. Evidently after the facility sent the original bills to MI people. We then waited a week and was told that the MI. VA needed the "red letter" copies submitted because their scanner would not scan the black and white copies. WHAT?? I don't remember a scanner that would not scan black and white copies. All I could say was that Regina Campbell at ext 73889 of the Fort Wayne non-VA care(fee basis)got to them in MI and the saga continues. Again the term "CYA" seems to apply to save ones position. I wonder if this will be resolved by November of 2015 .