HHS Secretary Appoints VCU Health System CEO to Council on Graduate Medical Education

By Pamela DiSalvo Lepley
Division of University Relations

The U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services, Michael Leavitt, has appointed Dr. Sheldon M. Retchin, chief executive officer of the Virginia Commonwealth University Health System, to the Council on Graduate Medical Education (COGME). Retchin also serves as vice president for Health Sciences at Virginia Commonwealth University.

COGME has 17 members and was authorized by Congress in 1986 to provide an ongoing assessment of physician workforce trends, training issues and financing policies, and to recommend appropriate federal and private sector efforts to address graduate medical education issues. COGME advises the Secretary of the U.S. Department of HHS, the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions, and the House of Representatives Committee on Commerce.

Individuals appointed to the council include representatives of practicing primary care physicians, national and specialty physician organizations, international medical graduates, medical student and house staff associations, schools of medicine and osteopathy, public and private teaching hospitals, health insurers, business, and labor. Federal representation includes the Assistant Secretary for Health, HHS; the administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, HHS; and the chief medical director of the Veterans Administration.

Retchin is a national expert in health policy and health care delivery and has special expertise regarding the Medicare program. He has had appointments on numerous national panels related to managed care, the costs of care and consumer surveys regarding health care for Medicare beneficiaries. Among others, he was one of the original technical advisors for Medicare's Consumer Assessment of Health Plans' study and is an appointed member of the Advisory Panel on Health Care Reform of the American Association of Medical Colleges and the Board of Directors of the Association of Academic Health Centers.

As CEO of the VCU Health System, he directs MCV Hospitals, a teaching hospital of more than 750 licensed beds; the faculty practice plan, MCV Physicians, which includes approximately 600 faculty physicians and Virginia Premier, a provider-sponsored Medicaid Health Maintenance Organization of about 100,000 members. As Vice President at VCU, Retchin has responsibility for the five health science schools of Medicine, Dentistry, Pharmacy, Nursing and Allied Health.