Melissa Bartlett is the Senior Vice President, Health Policy for ERIC, leading the development of ERIC’s health policy and advocacy for its legislative and regulatory priorities at the federal, state, and local levels. Specifically, she supports ERIC member companies in advancing policies impacting all aspects of employer-sponsored health coverage, including the taxation of benefits, health care costs, quality, safety, and access, as well as laws and regulations affecting how health care benefits are administered on a nationwide basis.
Prior to joining ERIC, Melissa was a Principal at Chamber Hill Strategies, providing a broad range of health care stakeholders with strategic counsel, policy development, and congressional and agency engagement on health care legislative and regulatory matters. A long-time health policy and government relations professional, Melissa brought to the firm her previous experience working within government, corporations, and associations to help drive success for her clients.
She previously served as Associate Vice President for Government Relations for Sanofi. Additionally, Melissa served as Vice President for Government Relations and Representation for Health Care Service Corporation (HCSC) and represented health insurers through her regulatory work for America’s Health Insurance Plans (AHIP). Her first health policy experience was working with large, multi-specialty group practices as legislative counsel for the American Medical Group Association (AMGA).
Melissa’s government experience includes serving as Counsel for the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Energy and Commerce for Chairman Joe Barton (R-TX) as the lead Medicare counsel in addition to working on a wide range of health policy issues within the Committee’s jurisdiction, including: Medicaid/CHIP, health reform, health insurance, mental health parity, health information technology, health privacy, patient safety, quality initiatives and measurement, FDA, and Ryan White HIV/AIDS funding. She also managed oversight and investigation issues before the Committee, including oversight of the Affordable Care Act (ACA).
Prior to her work for Congress, Melissa developed Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA) strategies, policies, and program improvements as a HIPAA Privacy Program Specialist for the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Office for Civil Rights (OCR) and assisted with investigations to secure HIPAA compliance.
Melissa earned her J.D. at the University of Kentucky College of Law, and her B.A. in Journalism from Franklin College.