Sharks Rx Spring 2018 | NSU College of Pharmacy

J (continued on next page) JOHN MICHAEL O’BRIEN, Pharm.D. (’00), deftly guides his audience of pharmacy students through a thicket of algorithms and acronyms. Somehow, he transforms what could have been a dry dissertation into a breathtaking adventure. In January 2017, O’Brien started as deputy assistant secretary for health policy at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Directing a staff of 55, he is one of the people making health care policy on Medicare, Medicaid, private insurance, and prescription drugs. His mission is nothing less than to make health care both effective and economical—one of the most difficult tasks of the 21st century. He began that mission as a pharmacy student at NSU. “I became a pharmacist because my mom got sick when I was a kid,” he told the NSU pharmacy students. “I watched prescription drugs make a real difference in my mother’s life.” He also noticed right away that paying for prescription drugs is as important as which drug is used. His career in the private and public spheres has been devoted to analyzing and controlling those costs. In his role as deputy assistant secretary, he and his staff analyze those costs and make recommendations to the secre- tary of health and human services.“For example, if the Medicare program wanted to make a change, my department would do the financial projections on the cost of that change,” O’Brien said. Earlier in his career, when he worked in the pharmaceutical industry, he played a key role in helping states implement the Medicare prescription program, which began in 2006. At the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), the job he held before going to the Department of Health and Human Services in January 2017, he launched a patient safety initiative, helping 3,500 hospitals prevent hospital-acquired infections. While working at the CMS, he also helped change payment incentives. “We saved billions of dollars and millions of lives,” he said. “I saw what a difference that made. Not only did my mom get drug coverage, but 90 percent of the seniors in this country got drug coverage, too.” “We saved billions of dollars andmillions of lives. I saw what a difference that made. Not only did my mom get drug coverage,90 percent of the seniors in this country got drug coverage, too.” —John Michael O’Brien