If a new acquaintance asks me what I “do”—a favorite icebreaker here inside the Beltway—I talk about my work in healthcare finance. This includes information about Applied Policy and the team I lead to facilitate reimbursement for a wide range of healthcare products and services.

As part of this introduction, I am also certain to emphasize the equally important, overarching mission of our work. What we “do” is improve lives.

At the center of our healthcare system, of course, providers deliver care to patients. At Applied Policy, we work to ensure that they get paid appropriately for their services, have ample choice of treatments for the people who come to them for help, and can gain access to the technologies needed to offer the most current procedures. Likewise, we help manufacturers secure appropriate reimbursement for the drugs, devices, and diagnostics that providers use. Much of this work requires finding a successful route for reimbursement under the Medicare program because, in addition to covering more than 60 million American lives, Medicare assigns codes to many drugs, devices, and diagnostics; has a transparent process for revising and publishing its coverage policy; and posts its payment rates online, making it a starting point for negotiations with commercial and other payers.

Without appropriate coverage, coding, and payment, doctors are unable to provide their patients with the services they need to feel better, and those patients will not have access to new, innovative products that better meet their clinical needs.

In addition to improving the lives of patients, I’m confident there is a “ripple effect” of our work that improves the lives of many others: the people we work with as clients who value our consult and expertise; the staff here at Applied Policy who do meaningful work, learn from it, and are financially supported by it; and the staff at CMS who are responsible for being good stewards of taxpayer dollars.

I find that nearly all the people who work in healthcare are well-intentioned, but their intentions do not always yield the outcome that they expect. When we are doing our Applied Policy best, we align intentions and results. Clients come to us with problems, and we think of creative ways to solve them. More often than not, we are successful. That’s why we are in business and how we fulfill our important commitment to improve lives.

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(Above, members of the Applied Policy team welcome summer interns in front of the Improving Lives mural in our Alexandria)