Zach Gaumer
Managing Principal
Health Management Associates
Washington, DC
[javascript protected email address]
(202) 785-3669
Zach Gaumer is an accomplished policy analyst and project manager with nearly 20 years of health policy experience. He possesses a deep understanding of Medicare, healthcare payment systems, federal and state policymaking, healthcare datasets, research methods and policy reform efforts. Zach is a skilled researcher with a passion for answering complicated payment policy questions.
Prior to joining HMA, Zach was a principal policy analyst at the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission (MedPAC). During his tenure at MedPAC, Zach was an expert advisor to U.S. Congressional committee staff on several Medicare payment systems and topics.
Zach is an expert on hospital payment policy, including Medicare’s inpatient and outpatient payment systems, non-Medicare hospital payment systems, and recent industry-wide developments. He also has a deep knowledge of industries such as ambulatory surgical centers, urgent care centers, emergency departments, telehealth, and ambulances. In addition to hospital payment systems, Zach has experience working with Medicare’s physician fee schedule and ambulance fee schedule. His expertise also includes hospital observation care, stand-alone emergency departments, special payments for new drugs and technologies, special payments for rural hospitals, electronic health records systems, quality measurement, bundled payment, global budgeting and value-based payment models. His work at MedPAC also exposed him to policy areas including post-acute care, Medicare Advantage, hospice, and end-stage renal disease.
Zach’s research and technical skills include policy impact estimation, payment policy modeling and forecasting, Medicare claims and cost report data analysis, private payer data analysis, regulatory and legislative analysis, and qualitative data gathering methods such as structured interviews and surveys. While at MedPAC, Zach also managed junior staff, published two articles in Health Affairs and presented at conferences on behalf of the organization.
Earlier in his career, Zach had positions at other entities analyzing federal and state health policy and health and pension benefits systems including the U.S. Government Accountability Office, where he conducted health policy research and produced reports related to the Medicare Advantage program, Accountable Care Organizations, Medicare’s end-stage renal disease program and specialty hospitals.
He also worked for the Massachusetts Health Management Organization Association, researching state legislative and regulatory insurance policy changes and Hewitt Associates (now AON Hewitt) consulting with Fortune 500 companies about their health and pension benefits programs.
Zach has a bachelor’s degree from Kenyon College and a Master of Policy Studies from Johns Hopkins University with concentrations in health policy and international affairs.
In his free time, Zach enjoys coaching his kids’ youth sports teams, spending time outside, and exploring new places.