The U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) recently revealed the appointment of two distinguished Indian American members to the Physician-Focused Payment Model Technical Advisory Committee (PTAC). Gene L. Dodaro, the Comptroller General of the United States and head of GAO, made the announcement. These new appointees, Henish Bhansali, MD, FACP, and Krishna Ramachandran, MBA, MS, will serve on the committee until 2027.
The PTAC is an important body that provides advice to the Department of Health and Human Services on optimizing the use of Medicare funds, which total around $1 trillion annually. Dodaro emphasized the committee’s vital role in shaping value-based payment systems and expressed his confidence in the new members’ vast knowledge of these models.
Dr. Henish Bhansali serves as the Chief Medical Officer at Medical Home Network, a healthcare organization focused on value-based care by partnering with various health centers and associations. He also holds a leadership role on the National Association of ACOs (NAACOS) Board and is an adjunct professor at the University of Illinois at Chicago. He earned his medical degree from the University of Illinois, where he graduated with Honors, and trained in Internal Medicine at Washington University/Barnes Jewish Hospital.
Krishna Ramachandran is the Senior Vice President of Health Transformation and Provider Adoption at Blue Shield of California. He leads initiatives aimed at improving healthcare quality and affordability. He holds an MBA from Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management and a Master’s in Electrical and Computer Engineering from the University of Illinois at Chicago.
The PTAC, created under the Medicare Access and CHIP Reauthorization Act of 2015 (MACRA), aims to enhance the way Medicare compensates physicians, focusing on more efficient and effective care for Medicare beneficiaries.
