Oregon Health Authority Director Sejal Hathi is hiring another experienced Washington D.C. hand to join her leadership team and oversee the agency's health policy and analytics work.
Clare Pierce-Wrobel's hire from the White House Domestic Policy Council comes on the heels of another former federal official, Emma Sandoe, joining Hathi as Oregon’s Medicaid director.
Since Hathi also worked as an adviser for the White House Domestic Policy Council, the agency's leadership now boasts significant experience and connections in Washington, D.C.— which could come in handy.
The federal government provides the bulk of the Oregon Health Authority’s budget, and in the past top state officials have appealed to federal officials for help with approval of state-based reforms as well as additional funding.
Pierce-Wrobel will head the agency's Health Policy and Analytics division, which works to gather and interpret data, evaluate programs and provide support for policies adopted around the agency. It includes the Public Employees' Benefit Board and the Oregon Educators Benefit Board, among other things.
Agency officials did not comment on Pierce-Wrobel, indicating that the formal hiring process is not finalized for the division director job.
“Health Policy & Analytics is key to Oregon’s success in improving the quality of and equity in Oregon’s health system,” a state spokeperson, Amy Bacher, wrote in an emailed statement. “We’re looking forward to sharing additional information about our new HPA Director when the hiring process is complete.”
Before moving to the White House, Pierce-Wrobel was an adviser to federal Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra, and also served as senior director with the nonprofit Health Care Transformation Task Force. Her work there on maternal health was highlighted by the Commonwealth Fund, a reform-oriented group. She also worked as an adjunct health policy professor at the George Washington University Milken School of Public Health.
Pierce-Wrobel previously worked at the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services on the implementation of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2010 as well as at the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation, which worked closely with the state of Oregon during its Medicaid reforms of more than a decade ago.
At the Domestic Policy Council, she oversaw policy areas that included many that are making headlines in Oregon: health care competition, drug prices, payment reform and Medicare.
She obtained a master’s degree in health services administration from the University of Michigan’s School of Public Health as well as a bachelor’s from the University of Michigan’s Honors College.
Pierce-Wrobel replaces the division's longtime interim director, Ali Hassoun. She is expected to start in Oregon next month.