Bruce C. Vladeck

Bruce C. Vladeck is Professor of Health Policy at Mt. Sinai School of Medicine, and consultant to a wide range of health care and other human service organizations. In December, he was appointed by President Clinton to the Bipartisan Commission on the Future of Medicare.

From 1993 through September, 1997, Dr. Vladeck was Administrator of the Health Care Financing Administration (HCFA) of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. In that position, he directed the Medicare and Medicaid programs, with combined annual expenditures of more than $300 billion in 1997. His tenure at HCFA was noteworthy for organizational and programmatic innovation in such areas as customer service, quality improvement, long-term care, and efforts to prevent and combat fraud and abuse. He also played a central role in the formulation and enactment of the Medicare, Medicaid, and Child Health provisions of the Balanced Budget Act of 1997.

Before joining the federal government, Dr. Vladeck served ten years as President of the United Hospital Fund of New York. He has also held positions on the faculty of Columbia University, at the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, and, from 1979 through 1982, as Assistant Commissioner for Health Planning and Resources Development of the New Jersey State Department of Health.

Dr. Vladeck was also a Trustee of the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation, served six years on the Prospective Payment Assessment Commission, and two terms as a Director of the New York City Health and Hospitals Corporation. At the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences, to which he was elected in 1986, Dr. Vladeck chaired the Committee on Health Care for Homeless People.

Among many other honors and awards, Dr. Vladeck received the 1995 National Public Service Award, which is administered by the National Academy of Public Administration and the American Society for Public Administration.

Dr. Vladeck has published widely, perhaps most notably in his book, Unloving Care: The Nursing Home Tragedv (Basic Books: 1980). He received his BA, magna cum laude, from Harvard College, and an MA and PhD in Political Science from the University of Michigan.