CHIBE Remembers Former Board Member Gail Wilensky

The Center for Health Incentives and Behavioral Economics (CHIBE) is saddened to announce the passing of former external advisory board member Gail Wilensky, PhD, on July 11, 2024.

“For many years Gail provided CHIBE with invaluable guidance as one of our Advisory Board members from 2010 to 2023, which included several years of service as our Vice Chair,” CHIBE Director Kevin Volpp, MD, PhD, said.

“We greatly valued her efforts to help us think critically about a range of health policy issues drawing on her years of expertise and perspective as the leader of the Health Care Financing Administration (HCFA, the predecessor of CMS) under President George H.W. Bush, the first Chair of the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission, and from advising numerous for-profit and not-for-profit health care organizations. We will greatly miss her wisdom and thoughtfulness in striving to improve health for all Americans,” he said.

CHIBE affiliate Mark Pauly, PhD, MA, said she was an important member of the “Ranks of the Rational” in health policy in Washington.

“She will be sorely missed,” Dr. Pauly said. “She was a leader in both generating evidence (though MEPS) and basing decisions on evidence, but also in balancing concern with cost in public decisions.”

Dr. Wilensky was a health economist and worked for over 30 years at Project HOPE, a global health and humanitarian organization. In addition to being the HCFA Director and first Chair of Medicare Payment Advisory Committee, she was an elected member of the National Academy of Medicine and received the 2019 Adam Yarmolinsky medal by the National Academy of Medicine, according to her website. She also served as a trustee of the Combined Benefits Fund of the United Mine Workers of America and the National Opinion Research Center and was on the board of directors of the Geisinger Health System Foundation and the National Alliance for Hispanic Health. She was also a long-time board member of United Health Group.  

See Dr. Wilensky’s obituary here. If you would like to commemorate Dr. Wilensky’s life, you are invited to make a contribution to Project Hope or the Ford School of Public Policy at the University of Michigan.