Niall Brennan Named New President And Executive Director Of HCCI

Recently, the Health Care Cost Institute (HCCI) Governing Board announced it had selected Niall Brennan, former Chief Data Officer at the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), as its next President and Executive Director.

Brennan is a nationally recognized expert in health care policy, the use of health care data to enable and accelerate health system change, and data transparency. At CMS, he led improvements in data collection and dissemination and efforts to help CMS better harness its vast data resources to drive higher quality, patient-centered care at a lower cost, and directed leading-edge analytics on the Medicare, Medicaid, and health insurance marketplaces. He also dramatically increased the amount of CMS data made available to external users to promote better understanding of health care in the United States. He is widely credited with significantly increasing transparency in the U.S. health care system, releasing dozens of data products that for the first time shed light on the utilization and prescribing patterns of physicians and other health care providers. In recognition of these achievements, he was awarded with the 2015 National Health Data Liberator Award. He has published widely in leading academic journals, including the New England Journal of Medicine and Health Affairs. Prior to joining CMS, Brennan worked at the Brookings Institution, the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission, the Congressional Budget Office, the Urban Institute, and Price WaterhouseCoopers.

Announcing the Board's decision today, Stephen Parente, Chair of the HCCI Governing Board said: "I know Niall well-he is smart, driven, and a visionary. He will shape HCCI's next chapter in exciting ways, while remaining true to the organization's commitment to rigorous research, transparency, and improving our national understanding about the drivers of increasing health care costs."

"HCCI has incredible data resources that can be used to develop better insights into what is driving changes in health care spending. I am excited to lead HCCI, and work with policymakers, researchers, consumers, and others to identify strategies and interventions to better understand costs, improve quality, and promote transparency," said Brennan.

Niall succeeds David Newman, who's stepping down after launching the organization in 2011. Under Newman's leadership, HCCI has become an established research enterprise with regular reports on the state of U.S. health care spending, research partnerships with a dozen leading academic institutions, and a series of philanthropic-supported research initiatives. In 2015, Newman spearheaded the launch of Guroo, HCCI's consumer-focused website which provides national, state, and local price information for nearly 300 health services. To ensure a smooth leadership transition, Newman will remain available as a senior advisor to HCCI.

"With David at the helm, HCCI has built a remarkable reputation for itself as an independent, non-partisan research entity and leader in transparency and all-payer claims database initiatives. He has taken HCCI beyond our wildest expectations. We now look forward to having Niall take HCCI forward to the next level," Parente added.

About The Health Care Cost Institute
The Health Care Cost Institute was launched in 2011 to promote independent, nonpartisan research and analysis on the causes of the rise in U.S. health spending. HCCI holds one of the largest databases for the commercially insured population and in 2014, became the first national Qualified Entity (QE) entitled to hold Medicare data. HCCI's consumer-focused website guroo.com was launched in 2015 and provides national, state and local price information for nearly 300 health services. For more information, visit www.healthcostinstitute.org.