Rachel Block Is Named Executive Director of NYeC | Archived

Release Date: 02.14.2008
Contact: rdeluna@uhfnyc.org
Contact Phone: 212-494-0733

[Note: This press release was issued and distributed by the New York eHealth Collaborative.]

The board of the New York eHealth Collaborative (NYeC) has selected Rachel Block to be its executive director. Ms. Block has served as NYeC's interim executive director since helping create the organization in 2007. She will assume her new full-time role on March 1.

Over the past year, while assuming her interim role with NYeC, Ms. Block has continued to serve as project director for the United Hospital Fund's Quality Strategies Initiative, which has focused on advancing the use of information technology/exchange to improve health care and on leading projects that improve the quality of care and patient safety in New York's hospitals. She joined the Fund in 2003.

Prior to the Fund, Ms. Block was vice president in the Health Services Group at MAXIMUS, where she directed strategic planning and development of products and services to improve the effectiveness and efficiency of state health programs. From 1994 to 2002, she worked at the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (previously Health Care Financing Administration), where she held several senior management positions directing policy development and operations of Medicaid, State Children's Health Insurance, and Federal Survey and Certification Programs, with particular emphasis on quality improvement, data, and systems issues. Earlier, she worked for then-Governor Howard Dean in the development of a comprehensive health reform plan for Vermont; and for the New York State Legislature, where she concentrated on Medicaid, coverage for the uninsured, public health, and professional licensing issues.

Currently, Ms. Block is a member of the eHealth Initiative Foundation Board, serving as secretary to its board. She is also a member of the American Medical Informatics Association, the Academy for Health Services Research and Policy, and the national advisory committee for the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation's Depression in Primary Care Initiative.

NYeC (pronounced like “nice”) was founded by health care leaders across New York, with leadership and support from the state's Department of Health, based on a shared vision of the urgent need to improve health care quality, safety, and efficiency. Aiming to improve the organization, delivery, and outcomes of health care, NYeC is a public-private partnership that serves as a focal point building consensus among stakeholders on state health information technology policy priorities, and to collaborate on related state and regional implementation efforts. NYeC provides an independent voice that reflects a diverse array of interests and perspectives on key policies and standards to ensure that health information technology implementation efforts are successful, and to realize the state's return on investment under HEAL-NY and other funding mechanisms.

“Rachel's vision and unflagging capacity for hard work have been critical to the formation of this important new organization,” said James R. Tallon, Jr., president of the United Hospital Fund. “The Fund has taken real pride in contributing to the creation of NYeC, and we applaud its board's decision to name Rachel its executive director.”

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