Anya Rader rejoins forces with KSE in health care reform plan

Kimbell Sherman Ellis, LLP, (KSE) a national government affairs and strategic communications firm, announced today a joint venture with Anya Rader Wallack, founder and president of Arrowhead Health Analytics of Fall River, MA. The venture positions the firms to jointly serve and empower clients affected by the recently passed national health care reform legislation and closely links Wallack and KSE, the firm where she began her career in 1989.
Wallack has a deep knowledge of health policy, including Medicaid and the impact of national health care reform on the 50 states. She established Arrowhead earlier this year after serving as interim president of the Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts Foundation (BCBSMAF) and executive director of the Massachusetts Medicaid Policy Institute (MMPI). Her clients include health care foundations, state governments and health care provider organizations.
“It’s an exciting opportunity to reunite with KSE,” Wallack said. “Their experience in government affairs, communications and research will enable us to bring a full array of services to the table for clients nationally.”
Bob Sherman, a founding partner of KSE, said the joint venture broadens KSE’s health care expertise while giving Wallack’s clients immediate access to additional expertise in government affairs and communications.
“Anya has made a career of melding health policy, analysis and politics,” Sherman said. “KSE has driven the policy and politics of health care reform at the state level for more than two decades. Together we will be uniquely positioned to help clients meet the challenges of the next decade.”
Wallack started as KSE’s first associate in 1989, representing insurers and providers in the Vermont Statehouse. She then served as Vermont Governor Howard Dean’s Policy Director and Deputy Chief of Staff from 1991-1994, including service on Hillary Rodham Clinton’s health care task force. She also chaired the National Governors Association staff-level health care committee in 1993 and 1994. From 1995-1998, Wallack ran the Vermont Program for Quality in Health Care, a quasi-governmental agency that specializes in quality measurement and improvement at the state level.
More recently, Wallack earned a Ph.D. in social policy from Brandeis University’s Heller School and has served as a consultant to state governments and multi-state organizations for most of the past decade. Her consulting clients have included the state of Vermont, the state of Rhode Island and the National Academy for State Health Policy.
For the past two years she has been deeply engaged in Massachusetts health care reform through her service at MMPI and BCBSMAF. She has developed a deep knowledge of the design and implementation of the Commonwealth’s reforms, on which national reform was largely modeled. Wallack continues to serve on the Massachusetts Health Care Quality and Cost Council, chairing that body’s cost containment committee.
Wallack lives in Little Compton, Rhode Island with her family.
About KSE:
Kimbell Sherman Ellis, LLP is a national government affairs and strategic communications firm with offices on Montpelier, VT, Cambridge, MA and Washington, DC. The firm represents health insurers, health providers and health issue trade groups and a wide range of other corporate and non-profit clients, specializing in state government affairs strategy, public relations, new media and crisis communications.
About Arrowhead:
Arrowhead Health Analytics, LLC, is a health policy firm offering clients research, analysis and strategic counsel related to state-based health care reform, Medicaid, state health care regulation and health care service delivery.
Source: Kimbell Sherman Ellis. July 1, 2010 MONTPELIER, Vt. -
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