Robert Laszewski

Robert Laszewski is president of Health Policy and Strategy Associates, Inc. (HPSA), a policy and marketplace consulting firm specializing in assisting its clients through the significant health policy and market change afoot.

Before forming HPSA in 1992, Mr. Laszewski was chief operating officer of a health and group benefits insurer.

Mr. Laszewski also publishes Health Policy and Marketplace Review, a blog focused on health care policy and marketplace activities.

Marketplace Activities. The majority of Mr. Laszewskis time is spent being directly involved in themarketplace as it comes to grips with the health care cost and quality challenge.

His clients include health insurance companies, casualty insurance companies,HMOs, Blue Cross organizations, hospitals, pharmaceutical companies, andphysician groups.

HPSA has been involved in the development of organized delivery systems, joint ventures between insurance companies and providers, joint ventures between HMOs and insurance companies, the acquisition and divestiture of blocks of health insurance business, the creation of strategies for workers compensation carriers to manage their costs in the changing health care delivery market, and the strategic planning of numerous clients as they come to grips with their response to policy and market driven change.

Mr. Laszewski is very active in the purchase and divestiture of health care and insurance businesses having been involved in a number of such transactions in recent years.

Policymaking Activities. Mr. Laszewski has participated extensively in the nations health care debate, especially on health insurance reform and the impact it will have on existing health insurance programs, the insurance industry, and the evolving role between payers and providers.

Bob Laszewski has written and spoken widely on the subject of health care reform and market change. His media appearances include health care features on ABC, NBC, CNN, PBS, and NPR, as well as on The McLaughlin Group and McLaughlins One on One. Additionally, numerous articles about his ideas have appeared in the national and trade press and he has been regularly quoted in many newspapers including The Wall Street Journal and the Washington Post.

He has also participated globally having chaired two international meetings recently in Washington, DC on the issue of international prescription drug pricing and the use of medical technology in Europe compared to the U.S.

While in the insurance industry, he participated on a number of Health Insurance Association task forces and committees including: serving as chairman of the Provider Relations Committee, serving on the Board Task Force on Cost Containment and on the working group on the ethics of genetic testing and insurance. He was a founding board member of the bipartisan Alliance for Health Reform, which included Senators Danforth and Rockefeller as well as a member of the Board of Overseers of the C. Everett Koop Foundation at Dartmouth and the Dartmouth Medical School.

His opinions are regularly sought by groups such as the Health Insurance Association of America, The Global Medical Forum, American Academy of Orthopedic Surgeons, the American College of Physicians, the American Society of Internal Medicine, the Council for Health Information Management, and the International Foundation of Employee Benefit Plans (sponsors of the CEBS designation), as well as other trade associations, state policy makers and regulators, hospital administrators, and religious groups. He has offered his perspective on health care reform in testimony before several committees of both the House and Senate of the U.S. Congress.