Steven Wojcik AM 1986

Wojcik Brings Large Firms to Federal Table on Health Issues

Steven Wojcik, AM’86 plays a key behind-the-scenes role in keeping federal officials and large employers informed of one another’s thinking on healthcare issues—and, at times, in bringing them to the table together to hash out their differences.

“We’re always looking for creative policy solutions for the future; not so much the quick policy solutions of the moment,” said Wojcik, vice president of public policy for the nonprofit National Business Group on Health. “I keep members informed of what’s going on, on Capitol Hill or in the administration. We also keep Washington [policymakers] informed of the best practices and concerns of large employers as they’re debating various policy issues.”

Although he’s helped the group’s members—mostly Fortune 500 companies that, together, provide health coverage for more than 45 million Americans—prepare testimony and testified himself before congressional staffers in an “informational” way, Wojcik is not a lobbyist. “We’re often invited to come and meet with [federal officials] if they want to know what our members are thinking and how larger employers will react to something,” he said.

“Our members have run healthcare plans for their employees and dealt with many cost and quality issues and have innovative solutions that have worked,” Wojcik added. “And also some things that haven’t worked. So we make sure the lessons we’ve learned are disseminated, so other organizations and the government don’t make the same mistakes.”

During his six years with the business group, Wojcik has delved into many issues including health savings accounts, flexible spending accounts, use of information technology in healthcare, quality and pay for performance, the Medicare prescription drug benefit, and federal patient safety legislation.

Wojcik’s paramount issue at the moment is bringing greater transparency to healthcare price and quality, to improve both efficiency and safety. “It underpins everything else we’re trying to do in our policy work,” he said. “We are very much supporting initiatives to promote pay for performance” through changes to Medicare.

He also was “heavily involved” in passing the prescription drug benefit legislation in 2003 and serves as National Business Group on Health’s liaison to the Medicare Model Guidelines Committee, which continues to make recommendations on the administration of the program.

“That was probably the closest I’ve come to the classic lobbying experience in Washington … with all the high stakes and the big dollars involved and media attention,” he says. “It was very exciting. I was happy to be a small part of it.”

Although it received less media attention than the prescription drug debate, the Patient Safety and Quality Improvement Act of 2005 ranks similarly in importance in Wojcik’s estimation. The act gives hospitals and physicians a safe space to report medical errors so everyone can learn from mistakes and make systemic changes without fear that the information could be used in a lawsuit.

For his part, Wojcik helped reconcile a “logjam” between medical interests and consumer groups, who “needed some assurance that people would still have the right to sue,” Wojcik said. “We needed their buy-in to pass this legislation” because key senators needed sign-offs from the consumer groups, and he helped to find an “acceptable compromise.”

Ed Finkel