My Books
SAVING THE HOOKER
THE RAZING OF TINTON FALLS
A THINKING MAN’S BULLY
THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION IN MONMOUTH COUNTY
WONK IS KNOW
A BIT ABOUT MY DAY JOB
ike so many red-blooded American boys growing up in the 1970s, I dreamed that one day—if I said my prayers and took my vitamins—I could become a health policy wonk. We dreamed big in central NJ, in those heady days. Kidding aside, I have been tremendously fortunate to fall into a career path that is both interesting and really important. I have the honor to play a small role in the discussions about how to pull this off. My involvement in health care policy started while I was pursuing my 2nd master’s degree at Northern Illinois (Go Huskies!). While there, I was hooked into a part-time job with Catholic Charities of Chicago, helping them modernize their nursing homes.This experience, in combination with a nice degree and academic honors, made me attractive to the Federal Government. I was selected as a Presidential Management Fellow in 1993 and began a long-term love affair with trying help the U.S. health care system work better. Most of my health policy writings are client-proprietary or government-owned, and I cannot post them on this website. But I am pleased to post two essays (for the important trade publications, Health Care Compliance Today and The RPM Report) that were published a few years back while I was consulting. Fortunately, both are still pretty accurate and relevant today: