The Better Medicare Alliance named Mary Beth Donahue as its new president and CEO, effective later this summer, the advocacy group announced.
Donahue, a former HHS Chief of Staff and patient advocate, will succeed Better Medicare Alliance's founding President and CEO Congresswoman Allyson Schwartz, who is leaving the organization after six years.
"We are deeply grateful that Mary Beth answered the call to serve as Better Medicare Alliance's next president and CEO, bringing with her nearly three decades of unrivaled management and policy expertise and a distinguished career on the frontlines of patient advocacy," Dr. Kenneth Thorpe, chair of the Better Medicare Alliance Board of Directors and chair of the Department of Health Policy and Management in the Rollins School of Public Health at Emory University, said in a statement.
The Better Medicare Alliance is a research and policy organization supporting Medicare Advantage with 160 member organizations and more than 500,000 grassroots beneficiaries.
Donahue served for nearly a decade at HHS and most recently worked as executive director of Kidney Care Partners, a coalition of patient advocates, dialysis professionals, care providers, researchers and manufacturers trying to improve the quality of care for individuals living with kidney diseases, according to a press release. She also is the past executive vice president of advocacy and operations of AHIP.
She also has served on the Board of Directors for Alliance for a Healthier Generation, a national not-for-profit dedicated to empowering children to develop lifelong healthy habits and was an advisory council member for the Cancer Support Community.
"Having been part of the senior leadership team at HHS during Medicare Advantage's earliest days when it was signed into law, the opportunity to serve as president and CEO of the Better Medicare Alliance is truly a full-circle moment," Donahue said in a statement.
"As Americans begin to re-emerge from the COVID-19 crisis, we will ensure that Medicare Advantage is ready and able to help beneficiaries navigate the road ahead while continuing to offer the better outcomes, lower costs, and high satisfaction that are hallmarks of the program today."
Donahue earned a bachelor's degree in political science from Boston College and a master's degree in public policy from Georgetown University's McCourt School. She is from Massachusetts and lives in Maryland with her two daughters.
