Geisinger CEO Named to National Committee to Improve Access to Healthcare Across USA

June 13, DANVILLE — Geisinger Health System President and CEO Glenn Steele, Jr., MD, has been named to The Commonwealth Fund’s newly-created Commission on a High Performance Health System.

This 18-member commission aims to move the U.S. toward a health care system that achieves better access, improved quality and greater efficiency, with particular focus on the most vulnerable due to income, race/ethnicity, health, or age.

“I am honored to be named to this commission because, as we all know, one of the biggest crises confronting our country today is determining how to provide affordable, high-quality health care to all people, regardless of where they live and how much they earn,” Dr. Steele said. “Pennsylvania can be proud that Geisinger Health System is recognized as a national leader in providing high quality and innovative health care and for that reason, has been chosen as a representative on this national committee.”

Karen Davis, President of the Commonwealth Fund, explained, “The U.S. health care system is the most expensive in the world, yet there is little question that, by any number of measures, we are not getting what we're paying for," she said. “We see the establishment of this commission as one crucial step in determining what needs to be done to ensure that we get the best care—and the best value—for our health care dollars.”

The commission will be charged with defining the characteristics of high-performance health systems; identifying the policy changes that would facilitate achieving such a system in the U.S.; setting realistic targets for what the U.S. could achieve in higher system performance; recommending concrete steps, including policies and practices, private and public, that would lead to achievement of these goals; issuing an annual "scorecard" documenting progress in achieving the goals; and issuing an annual report outlining key policy issues related to achieving a high-performance health system.

As a commission member, Dr. Steele initially will serve for five years.

“In choosing members of the commission, we were looking for persons who had very broad interests and experience in health care, including thinking about and dealing with coverage, access, quality of care and efficiency of care," said Stephen C. Schoenbaum, M.D., executive vice president for programs at The Commonwealth Fund and executive director of the new commission. "Dr. Steele not only leads an innovative health care system, but has had experience involving clinical care, use of information systems, health plans and medical education. Accordingly, he was an ideal candidate for this Commission; and we are delighted that he has agreed to sit on it."

Geisinger Health System is an integrated, physician-led healthcare system serving nearly two million residents in central and northeastern Pennsylvania. It includes a tertiary medical center with the nation’s first rural children’s hospital, a community acute-care and referral medical center, a nationally acclaimed alcohol and chemical dependency treatment center, a heart institute, a cancer institute, a neuro-sciences program, one of the largest not-for-profit rural HMOs in the country, a network of more than 40 community practice offices throughout its service area, an adult and pediatric trauma center, and diversified and community health services, including many partnerships with non-Geisinger regional and local providers.