Director of Health Policy in Washington, District of Columbia at AMERICAS ESSENTIAL HOSPITALS

POSITION SUMMARY: The Director of Health Policy serves as a key leader managing the strategy and execution of projects across a broad range of critical policy initiatives affecting essential hospitals. This position is responsible for developing, directing and ensuring America’ Essential Hospitals (AEH) federal and state regulatory advocacy; leading policy initiatives to protect essential hospitals’ interests and missions. This position oversees both the policy and data analytics teams, aligning policy priorities with the organization's broader strategic goals. The Director of Health Policy represents AEH and member stakeholders before the administration, in various public speaking engagements, conferences, events and media interviews.

This is an excellent opportunity for an individual who has experience managing a team, a genuine passion for essential hospital policy initiatives and is able to prioritize and execute projects, translating big picture strategy into actionable deliverables for our members. The projected salary range for the Director of Health Policy is $165,000-$195,000 per year.

PRINCIPAL DUTIES AND JOB RESPONSIBILITIES of the DIRECTOR OF HEALTH POLICY*:

*below is a summary, not an inclusive list of all responsibilities

Strategic Leadership

• Develop and implement long and short-term plans to achieve established strategic goals, identify deliverables, track results, and report progress to key internal and external stakeholders.
• Successfully define and execute policy initiatives, approaches and rationale to support AEH advocacy efforts. Provide strategic recommendations to leadership on America’s Essential Hospitals’ advocacy and policy agenda.
• Lead, develop, engage and mentor a team of professional staff, with varying levels of experience.
• Oversee the work of several consultants and contractors engaged to assist with America’s Essential Hospitals’ policy agenda, including policy development, executive branch relations, and data analytics.
• Directs and reviews analyses to assess the potential impact of legislative and regulatory proposals and understand their impact on member hospitals.
• Oversee the production of comment letters, background papers, issue briefs, and drafts of responses to proposed regulations and regulatory requests.
• Provides strategic leadership of data analytics, ensuring analytics deliverables are relevant, accurate, and timely.
• Leverages policy expertise to incorporate quantitative analytics and data points into compelling advocacy documents, such as one-pagers and regulatory comment letters.
• Monitor relevant state policy developments and trends.
• Manage policy team budget and provides oversight of data analytics budget.

Collaboration and Advocacy

• Lead regulatory advocacy through collaboration with the administration and federal government agencies on issues of importance to members of America’s Essential Hospitals.
• Serve as main contact between America’s Essential Hospitals and the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), Health Resources & Services Administration (HRSA), as well as the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission (MedPAC), the Medicaid and CHIP Payment and Access Commission (MACPAC), the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), and others federal agencies.
• Serve as liaison to various coalitions, think tanks, trade associations, and unlikely allies to advance support of America’s Essential Hospitals members and their issues. In particular, work closely with other national and state hospital associations for essential hospitals.
• Collaborate with other advocacy department teams and leaders, including the legislative affairs team to analyze the impact of legislative proposals, the communications team to coordinate advocacy messages and communications campaign strategies, and the Medicaid policy advisor to synchronize on special Medicaid policy projects.
• Collaborates with other team and department leaders to ensure member needs and interests are met, and, in particular, that analytics needs are fulfilled across the organizational enterprise.

Assist CEO and Vice President for Member Services in ongoing efforts to recruit and retain member hospitals and support work to engage and retain sponsors and affiliate members, as appropriate.

Education and Communication

• Develop and provide communications, materials and education on regulatory issues to America’s Essential Hospitals staff and members. Present at association conferences and meetings, webinars, interest groups, and conference calls.
• Support America’s Essential Hospitals policy committee, by setting the committee’s agenda, preparing background and education materials, presenting at committee meetings, drafting committee work products, and presenting committee work at association board as appropriate.
• Represent association and communicate the association’s advocacy and policy priorities in media interviews, at stakeholder meetings, and before member hospitals.
• Oversee content development of key educational programs including the annual Medicaid Summit and other in-person meetings. Participate in additional association events, as necessary, such as Policy Assembly, Government Relations Academy, and association board meetings.
• Coordinate and facilitate member interest group meetings, such as the 340B Interest Group, and ad hoc issue-specific work groups.

MINIMUM EDUCATION AND EXPERIENCE REQUIRED FOR THE DIRECTOR OF HEALTH POLICY:

• Masters degree in public policy, public health, or other related field or Juris Doctor.
• 10 or more years of relevant experience of the legislative and regulatory policy process; preferably with a focus on health care.
• A minimum of two years of experience supervising a team.
• High political and health care acumen, to include knowledge of Medicaid, Medicare, the 340B program, and other health care reimbursement issues, including specific knowledge of hospital reimbursement and how care to the uninsured is financed.

ESSENTIAL CHARACTERISTICS FOR THE DIRECTOR OF HEALTH POLICY:

• Ability to lead a team, contributing to a culture of connectedness, accountability, collaboration and learning.
• Ability to think strategically to develop creative approaches to promote and protect essential hospitals’ interests.
• Skill in synthesizing complex policy issues as well as understanding of statistical and analytic results.
• Expertise in reading, analyzing, and drafting policy language, including statute, bills, regulations, or other federal notices required.
• Passion for policy and advocacy issues affecting essential hospitals.
• Ability to use judgment, discretion and decision-making skills to thrive in a fast-paced and results-oriented environment.
• Proficiency with cross-team collaboration, developing relationships with a wide range of personalities and interests, including industry colleagues, policymakers, staffers, academics, community leaders, and internal executives.
• Strong project management capability; able to work independently to balance multiple priorities simultaneously.
• Exceptional communication skills both verbally and in writing.
• Ability to travel occasionally.
• Able to live in MD, DC, or VA and commute to the Washington, DC office as needed.