Gail R. Wilensky, PhD, one of the nation’s foremost leaders in health policy, died on July 11, 2024, at the age of 81. She will be remembered for her vast contributions in the area of healthcare policy.
Wilensky freely shared her insights and perspectives in a long-standing relationship with HFMA. She was a speaker at HFMA events, a member of HFMA’s Healthcare Leadership Council, and 1998 recipient of HFMA’s Richard L. Clark Board of Directors Award. And for 20+ years, she was a columnist for hfm with her Eye on Washington column. Her most recent column was published in the June 2024 issue of hfm.
Wilensky’s early work in healthcare included helping to develop the National Medical Care Expenditure Survey, which would prove to be among the nation’s most important ongoing surveys of health insurance coverage, healthcare access and healthcare utilization.
She served as administrator of the Health Care Financing Administration (now CMS) from 1990 to 1992 and was deputy assistant for policy development to President George H.W. Bush in 1992. And following these appointments, she chaired the Physician Payment Review Commission (1995-97) and MedPAC (1997-2001).
Just a few of her many government and industry roles included president and chair of the Health Care Subcommittee for the Defense Health Board, a federal advisory board to the Secretary of Defense; commissioner on the World Health Organization’s Commission on the Social Determinants of Health; co-chair of the Department of Defense Task Force on the Future of Military Health Care; and an elected member of the Institute of Medicine, serving two terms on its governing council.
She received her PhD in economics from the University of Michigan and has received several honorary degrees.
Wilensky often testified before congressional committees and advised members of Congress and other elected officials. She also was a speaker nationally and internationally.
She was employed for more than four decades at Project HOPE, a global health and humanitarian organization located in Bethesda, Md., serving as vice president, Health Affairs, from 1983 to 1989. She was recruited to help launch Project HOPE’s Center for Health Affairs and to further the development of the Health Affairs journal, which was launched in 1981. Returning to Project HOPE in 1993, she served as a senior fellow and board director until her passing.
A long-time colleague, Peter J. Neumann, wrote in a remembrance that, beyond her Republican affiliations, “at heart she was a bipartisan problem-solver and a pragmatist.”
HFMA’s Richard L. Gundling, FHFMA, CMA, senior vice president of professional practice, described her as “a true D.C. insider who shared her expertise and experience.”
Everyone at HFMA who was privileged to work with Gail Wilensky will miss her.
