A Dartmouth-Hitchcock physician is among nine appointees to the nominating committee for Vermont’s new Green Mountain Care Board.
Louis A. Kazal Jr. MD, a practicing family physician at Dartmouth-Hitchcock and president of the New Hampshire Academy of Family Physicians, was appointed by Vermont Gov. Peter Shumlin on June 1. He was one of three nominating committee members recommended to Shumlin by Vermont Senate President pro tem John Campbell.
Dartmouth-Hitchcock is the second-largest provider of health care to Vermonters; 40 percent of Dartmouth-Hitchcock’s patient base lives in the Green Mountain state.
“With the passage of its Green Mountain Care legislation, Vermont is the first state in the nation to take such a bold step to insure all its citizens have access to affordable health care,” said Kazal. “I’m honored to be a part of the nominating committee and look forward to providing Governor Shumlin with a group of nominees who will work to attain the goal of high-quality care for all Vermonters.”
In addition to his clinical practice, Kazal is also an Associate Professor of Community and Family Medicine at Dartmouth Medical School. He has 24 years of primary care experience in a variety of settings, including rural and urban; private practice, group practice, and academic practice; and medically underserved and overserved populations.
Kazal was one of the early pioneers of the medical home model and brought national recognition to the Community Health Center through the TransforMed Project (a nationwide demonstration project of initial medical home practices). He is a co-investigator for an HRSA grant on how to educate medical students and primary care residents in a geriatric medical home setting. He was also a Robert Wood Johnson Health Policy Fellow at the Institute of Medicine with a working assignment in the U.S. Senate in Washington, DC.
“Dr. Kazal's impressive background and current medical practice make him particularly well-suited to help Vermont choose those individuals who will sit on Green Mountain Care's governance board,” noted Senate President Campbell.
Kazal is one of two physicians appointed to the nominating committee that will begin vetting candidates for the Board, which will design and administer major components of Vermont’s new health care reform plan.