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Nancy-Ann DeParle

1. Why She Matters
2. At a Glance
3. Path to Power
1. 3.1. Clinton White House
2. 3.2. Private Sector
3. 3.3. In Her Own Words
4. The Issues
1. 4.1. Medicare and Medicaid
2. 4.2. Private Sector
5. The Network
6. Campaign Contributions

Current Position: Head of the White House Office of Health Reform

Credit: Washington Post

Table of Contents

1. Why She Matters
2. At a Glance
3. Path to Power
1. 3.1. Clinton White House
2. 3.2. Private Sector
3. 3.3. In Her Own Words
4. The Issues
1. 4.1. Medicare and Medicaid
2. 4.2. Private Sector
5. The Network
6. Campaign Contributions

Why She Matters

As Obama’s health czar, DeParle is the administration’s "point guard" in overhauling the American health-care system. She works closely with her old friend, Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius on the administration's biggest, and possibly toughest, legislative goal.

A veteran of the Bill Clinton health-reform wars, DeParle brings institutional memory to the job as well as an understanding of the arcane nooks of government-funded health insurance plans. She’s an expert on Medicare and Medicaid, and could help the Obama administration expand those programs while in pursuit of universal coverage.

Since the Clinton years, she’s has a series of plum posts in academia and the private sector, most recently as a managing director at a private equity firm.

DeParle’s private sector ties mean that she understands the desires of key stakeholders in the health-reform fight, and she's already exploited her connections in pursuit of the Obama administrations legislative goals. But those ties could also open her up to ethics questions as she creates a new world order in the health arena.

As head of the newly-created White House office, DeParle fills a slot was originally intended for veteran Washington hand Tom Daschle before he had to withdraw his name over tax issues.

At a Glance

Current Position: Head of White House Office of Health Reform (since March 2009)

Career History: Managing Director, CCMP Capital (since 2001); Adjunct professor, Wharton School of Business (since 2001); Commissioner, Medicare Payment Advisory Commission (since 2001); Fellow, Harvard Institue of Politics (2000 to 2001); Director, Healthcare Financing Administration (1997 to 2000)

Birthday: December 17, 1956

Hometown: Rockwood, Tenn.

Alma Mater: University of Tennessee at Knoxville, B.A. (history), 1978; Balliol College, Oxford University, B.A. (politics, philosophy and economics), 1981; Harvard Law School, J.D., 1983; Oxford University, M.Sc., 1986

Spouse: Jason DeParle

Religion: N/A

Office: N/A

Email N/A

Web site

Path to Power

Nancy-Ann Min was born in Cleveland, Ohio, but grew up in Rockwood, Tenn., raised by a single mother, June Cooley Min, a secretary for the State Department of Conservation.“Nancy-Ann Min, Jason DeParle,” The New York Times, March 23, 1997

DeParle's interest in paying for health care comes from experience. Nancy-Ann was only a teenageer when her mother was diagnosed with aggressive lung cancer. June continued working through her painful treatments so she coud hang onto her job-sponsored health insurance, and even .Connolly, Ceci, "A Long Battle Ahead for Health-Care Czar," The Washington Post, May 14, 2009

Nancy-Ann won a scholarship to the University of Tennessee at Knoxville, where she was a standout student and the first woman elected as president of the student government association.

She graduated from UT with a major in history in 1978, and went on to Harvard Law School.

In her first year at Harvard, she was selected as a Rhodes Scholar and left to study at Balliol College at Oxford University. She earned an honors B.A. in politics, philosophy and economics in 1981, and returned to Harvard to finish her J.D., which she earned in 1983.

After law school she won a prestigious clerkship on the 6th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals, which covers Tennessee, Kentucky, Michigan and Ohio. She then returned to Oxford to pick up a master’s in 1986, before going back to Nashville to practice at the law firm of Bass, Berry & Sims.

In 1987, Tennessee governor Ned McWherter (D) asked her to head the Tennessee Department of Human Services. The 6,000- employee agency administered food stamps, child welfare and Medicaid programs in Tennessee.

DeParle returned to Bass, Berry & Sims in 1989. She moved to Washington, D.C., in 1991 to join the law firm of Covington & Burling.

Clinton White House

In 1993, the 36-year-old was named the associate director for health and personnel at the Office of Management and Budget (OMB). In that capacity, she served as the OMB’s representative on health-care reform during Bill Clinton’s first term. In 1994, Time magazine named her one of its top 50 future leaders.

But the Clinton health plan was defeated, and in July 1997, DeParle moved to the Department of Health and Human Services as deputy director of the Health Care Financing Administration, which is now known as the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. She became that office’s administrator for the last three years of Clinton’s presidency.Biographical information taken from University of Tennessee Web site

That's where she first met her current comrade-in-arms, Sebelius. At the time, Sebelius, who is now HHS secretary, was the Kansas Insurance Commissioner. The two women met in the White House mess, when then-HHS secretary Donna Shalala introduced them during the battle to draft a patients' bill of rights to curb the power of managed care companies. It was the beginning of what Sebelius later called, "a natural alliance."Wolf, Richard, "Sebelius, DeParle ready to tackle health care overhaul," USAToday, June 1, 2009

In 2001, DeParle left government to take a year-long fellowship at Harvard’s Institute of Politics, where she was part of Harvard’s Health Care Policy Forum and led a weekly study group on reforming Medicare.

Private Sector

DeParle then entered the private sector. She took a job as a senior adviser to JPMorgan, which turned into a managing director position in their private equity spin-off, CCMP Capital Advisors. She was also an adjunct professor at the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School of Business, where she focused on health policy.

Over the next few years, she took seats on prominent boards including Medco Health Solutions, health information technology company the Cerner Corporation, medical device manufacturer Boston Scientific, Legacy Hospital Partners and Triad Hospitals, to name just a few.

She also became a commissioner of the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission (MedPAC), the independent committee that advises Congress on what Medicare should pay health-care providers. Some reform advocates, notably Sen. John D. Rockefeller IV (D-W.Va.), have proposed beefing up MedPAC to become an oversight organization in a proposed publicly funded health plan.

Furthermore, DeParle became a trustee of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, a health non-profit, and is on the editorial board of Health Affairs magazine.

She has been married to Jason DeParle, a New York Times correspondent in the Washington bureau, since 1997, and has two sons.

In Her Own Words

"Anyone who works on health policy for more than half an hour sees how tough it is," DeParle told the Washington Post's Ezra Klein. "There's a definite camaraderie among those of us trying to figure out these problems." Klein, Ezra, "Is This 1994 All Over Again? An Interview with Nancy-Ann DeParle," The Washington Post, August 12, 2009

The Issues

DeParle finds herself at the helm of an office tailor-made for ex-Senate Majority Leader Daschle (D-S.D.). The former senator and early Obama supporter had negotiated a position as head of the newly-created White House Office of Health Reform to complement his cabinet post as Health and Human Services secretary. When tax problems felled Daschle’s nomination, his withdrawal left not one but two posts for Obama to fill. DeParle took the White House job, and Obama tapped Kansas Gov. Kathleen Sebelius to run HHS.

The two women are working together on a major overhaul of the American health-care and health-insurance systems with the twin goals of expanding access and reining in costs. But it’s DeParle who has to stand up to those in the White House with strong opinions on health reform, including OMB head Peter Orszag and Larry Summers, head of the president’s National Economic Council. She also contends with a bevy of outside stakeholders, from doctors to insurance companies to unions, which each want to change the system but in different ways.

Medicare and Medicaid

As head of the HHS Health Care Financing Administration under Clinton, DeParle ran the largest health insurance provider in America, overseeing $600 billion in payments annually to 74 million recipients of Medicare and Medicaid.Press release: “Medco Elects Nancy-Ann DeParle to Board of Directors,” PRNewswire, October 22, 2008,

Before that, she spent two years as Tennessee’s human services commissioner and four years as the Office of Management and Budget’s health expert. In the latter capacity, she the OMB’s representative to the Clinton health-care reform team. That experience could help her avoid repeating the Clintons’ mistakes.

DeParle’s knowledge of the Medicare and Medicaid could be an asset in Obama’s push to expand state-sponsored health programs.

Private Sector

During the George W. Bush years, DeParle honed her experience in the private sector. She sat on the boards of many health companies, from medical treatment producers to hospital systems. She also served as a managing director of a private equity firm called CCMP Capital, using her expert knowledge of complicated Medicare reimbursement cycles to advise the company on acquisitions.

DeParle’s industry knowledge enables her to understand the needs of many stakeholders in the health-care debate. And that could help Obama avoid a situation that largely caused the failure of the Clintons’ health-care reform effort in 1993 when a few alienated interest groups torpedoed it.

DeParle's contacts already helped avoid one pitfall, Politico.com reported. When she heard that insurance company BlueCross BlueShield of North Carolina planned a series of web-ads criticizing the White House-supported public insurance option, DeParle got on the phone to the company's CEO. The end result: the ads were yanked.

"That call showed that DeParle and other Democrats are going to take the fight to opponents of Obama's plans," Politico.com said.Frates, Chris, "DeParle Battles Old and New Critics," Politico.com, May 26, 2009

But DeParle is in a position to remake how the health industry doles out money. In an administration with high ethical standards, DeParle will have to go out of her way to avoid any semblance of favoritism, especially towards industries or companies she’s made money from in the past.

DeParle’s private sector connections already raised eyebrows when she helped get the ball rolling on a deal between her employer, CCMP Capital, and Triad Hospitals, where she sits on the board. After introducing the two parties, DeParle says she recused herself and had nothing further to do with the deal.Becker, Cindy, “DeParle’s double play,” ModernHealthcare.com, February 12, 2007

The Network

For DeParle’s first two years in the Office of Management and Budget she served under then-OMB head Leon Panetta. Panetta is now Obama’s CIA director.

DeParle served as Tennessee human services commissioner in the cabinet of Gov. Ned McWherter (D). Her cousin, Dave Cooley, was deputy governor of Tennessee under Gov. Phil Bredesen (D), and has long been close to the governor. Bredesen was rumored to be in contention for the spot as secretary of Health and Human Services.

In the White House Office of Health Reform, DeParle's deputy is Lauren Aronson, a former Rahm Emanuel staffer. DeParle also oversees communications director Linda Douglass, senior adviser Michael Hash and policy analyst Jennifer Cannistra.

Campaign Contributions

DeParle gave $2,300 to Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.) in early 2007, as the senator geared up for an unsuccessful presidential bid, according to the Center for Responsive Politics. In September 2008, DeParle donated $2,300 each to Clinton and Barack Obama.Center for Responsive Politics, www.OpenSecrets.org

In 2007 and 2008, DeParle also made large donations to a slew of Democrats, including Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus (D-Mont.), whose committee has jurisdiction over health-care reform, and then-Rep. Rahm Emanuel (D-Ill.), who is now White House chief of staff.