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1993.09.24 :  Director of Medicaid Bureau

Contact:  Anne Verano (202) 690-6145
September 24, 1993

     Bruce C. Vladeck, administrator of the Health Care Financing
Administration, announced today that Sally K. Richardson, a West
Virginia health official, has been selected to be director of
HCFA's Medicaid Bureau.
     The Medicaid Bureau provides health care services to 31
million Medicaid recipients at a cost to the federal government
and the states of $120.2 billion in FY 
1992.  
     Richardson has been director of the West Virginia Public
Employees Insurance Agency since 1989 and chair of its finance
board since 1990.  The state agency is responsible for the health
and life insurance of 93,000 employees and 125,000 dependents.   
     She has been the vice chair of the West Virginia Health Care
Planning Commission since 
1991.  In this role, she was the
governor's designee to oversee the work of the legislative
commission charged with developing a system of universal access
to affordable, quality health care for all West Virginia
residents.  
     In February 1993, Richardson took a leave of absence from
her state responsibilities and served for three months as a 
member of President Clinton's Working Group on Health Care
Reform.
     "Sally Richardson brings invaluable experience to the
Medicaid Bureau from her years of health care experience in state
government," Vladeck said.
     She replaces Rozann Abato, Medicaid Bureau acting director
since January, who will return to her permanent position as
deputy director.
     Richardson was a special assistant for human services for
Gov. John D. Rockefeller IV from 1977 to 1978.
     From 1978 to 1979, she was the deputy commissioner of the
West Virginia Department of Welfare Planning and Evaluation, and
from 1979 to 1983, she was the deputy director of the West
Virginia Department of Health.     
     Richardson was then the chairperson of the West Virginia
Health Care Cost Review Authority from 1983 to 1985.
     From 1985 to 1989, she was a private consultant for Health
Management Strategies in Charleston, W.Va.
     Richardson received a bachelor's degree from Vassar College,
Poughkeepsie, N.Y.
     She has been involved in professional associations and
activities related to rural health care and state health care
reform.  Some of these include the steering committee on
alternative systems and cost management of the National Academy
for State Health Policy; the legislative task force on
uncompensated care and Medicaid expenditures run by the West
Virginia Legislature; and the meeting to consider the impact of
the Jackson Hole proposals on rural states. 
     Richardson is a native West Virginian and is married to Don
R. Richardson, a professional engineer.  They have two daughters,
Paige and Evan.

EDITOR'S NOTE:  The Health Care Financing Administration, an
agency of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, helps
pay the medical bills of 36 million Medicare beneficiaries and 31
million Medicaid recipients.  HCFA's estimated expenditures are
almost $230 billion.