April 2016

This week, Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) Secretary Sylvia Mathews Burwell announced the appointment of Andrew Bindman, MD, as director of the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ). Dr. Bindman will begin his appointment on May 2, 2016, replacing former director Richard Kronick, MD, who left the agency in March, 2016.

Dr. Bindman is currently a professor of medicine, health policy, epidemiology and biostatistics at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) and director of the University of California Medicaid Research Institute (CAMRI) and UCSF's Primary Care Research Fellowship. He was a senior advisor at the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) between 2014 and 2015. Prior to this position, Dr. Bindman  was a senior advisor within the DHHS's Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation's Office of Health Policy, where he worked to establish new Medicare payment codes for transitional care and chronic care management.

The AHRQ is the lead federal agency supporting research and evidence to improve the quality and safety of health care.