Charles N. Kahn III

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Charles N. Kahn III ("Chip") is one of the nation's most notable and quotable experts on health policy, Medicare payment, health care financing, and the uninsured. His extensive health policy expertise, outstanding leadership skills, lengthy Capitol Hill experience, and proven campaign and communications skills make him one of Washington, DC's most effective and accomplished trade association executives.

Currently, Mr. Kahn is President of the Federation of American Hospitals (FAH), the national advocacy organization for investor-owned hospitals and health systems. He has served as FAH President since June 2001.

Mr. Kahn is one of only 20 health care leaders who have appeared on Modern Healthcare magazine's annual "100 Most Powerful People in Healthcare" list since its inception. In May, 2008, The Hill newspaper selected him as one of the capital's top lobbyists for the eighth consecutive year. Mr. Kahn also has been acknowledged as one of two "major movers" of an effort sponsored by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation that brought together a diverse, "strange bedfellows" coalition of often-opposing major national advocacy organizations to seek solutions to extending health coverage to the uninsured.

Mr. Kahn is at the forefront of national initiatives to shape policy for health care quality and information technology. In June of 2007, he was appointed as a member of the Governing Board of the National Quality Forum (NQF), a not-for-profit private-public partnership and the nation's pre-eminent organization for developing and implementing a national strategy for health care quality measurement. Mr. Kahn also serves as a principal in the Hospital Quality Alliance (HQA), a private-public partnership that he helped to initiate.

On September 13, 2005, Michael Leavitt, Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), appointed Mr. Kahn as a Commissioner of the American Health Information Community, a federal policy advisory panel responsible for advising the Secretary about the diffusion of health information technology.

Before coming to FAH, Mr. Kahn was one of the nation's top leaders in the health insurance industry. From January 1998 to June 2001, while President of the Health Insurance Association of America (HIAA), he focused national attention upon the plight of the uninsured. Under his leaderhip, HIAA was named by Fortune magazine for three consecutive years at the nation's most influential insurance trade association.

In 1993 and 1994, as HIAA Executive Vice President, Mr. Kahn ran the ground-breaking "Harry and Louise" campaign, which raised questions about President Clinton's health reform plan - a campaign characterized by Advertising Age magazine as "among the best conceived and executed public affairs advertising programs in history". In 2000, Mr. Kahn brought back "Harry and Louise" as advocates for the uninsured, a move applauded even by traditional critics of the health insurance industry.

Mr. Kahn has a long and distinguished career as a professional staff person on Capitol Hill, specializing in health policy issues. During 1995-1998, he played a crucial role in formulating significant health legislation while serving as staff director for the Health Subcommittee of the House Ways and Means Committee. During this time, his efforts helped bring about the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) and the Medicare provisions of the Balanced Budget Act of 1997 (BBA).

From 1986 to 1993, Mr. Kahn served as minority health counsel for the House Ways and Means Health Subcommittee, where he helped shape every piece of national health entitlement legislation. Earlier in his Capitol Hill career, he served as senior health policy advisor to former Senator David Durenberger (R-MN) and legislative assistant for health to former Senator Dan Quayle (R-IN).

Mr. Kahn cut his political teeth in the 1970s. In 1974 and 1976, he managed former House Speaker Newt Gingrich's first two campaigns for the House of Representatives. From June, 1980 to June, 1983, Mr. Kahn directed the Office of Financial Management Education at the Association of University Programs in Health Administration (AUPHA) after completing an administrative residency with the Teaching Hospital Department of the Association of American Medical Colleges.

Mr. Kahn is a member of the Board of Directors of Zix Corporation, a global provider of secure e-messaging, e-prescribing, and e-transaction applications and services. He also serves as Treasurer for the David A. Winston Health Policy Fellowship, a 12-month postgraduate experience in Washington, D.C.

Mr. Kahn taught health policy at The Johns Hopkins University, The George Washington University, and Tulane University, and writes about health care financing. A commentary that he wrote - ("Intolerable Risk, Irreparable Harm: The Legacy of Physician-Owned Specialty Hospitals") - and a paper that he co-authored - ("Snapshot Of Hospital Quality Reporting And Pay-For-Performance Under Medicare") - appear in the January/February, 2006 edition of Health Affairs. "Building A Consensus For Expanding Health Care Coverage", co-authored with Ron Pollack of Families USA, appears in the January/February, 2001 edition of Health Affairs. Another paper that he co-authored ("Budget Bills as Precedents For Medicare Policy: The Politics of the BBA") - appears in the January/February, 1999 edition of Health Affairs, and "Why We Should Keep the Employment-Based Health Insurance System" is in the November/December, 1999 edition of Health Affairs.

Mr. Kahn holds a Master of Public Health (M.P.H.) degree from Tulane University School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine - which in 2001 bestowed upon him its prestigious "Champion of Public Health" award - and received a Bachelor of Arts degree from The Johns Hopkins University. He was inducted into the Georgetown University Chapter of Upsilon Phi Delta, a national academic honor society for students in healthcare administration. He also is a member of Delta Omega, the honorary society for graduate studies in public health.

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