WASHINGTON, March 2, 2023 – The ERISA Industry Committee (ERIC) announced today that it has appointed Melissa Bartlett as senior vice president for health policy. In the role, Bartlett will work closely with ERIC members to lead the development and advancement of the organization’s health policy, including legislative and regulatory advocacy at the federal, state, and local levels. Bartlett will also be responsible for providing strategic support to the ERIC Legal Center on relevant health litigation that supports the ability of its member companies to administer health benefits uniformly across the country. She will report to James Gelfand, president of ERIC.
Bartlett joins ERIC from DC-based Chamber Hill Strategies, where she was a principal for more than five years. She brings to her new role 20-plus years of legislative and regulatory health policy expertise. Throughout her career, Bartlett has represented health care providers, insurance, and pharmaceutical industries. She has also served in senior roles on Capitol Hill and in a past Administration.
“Melissa brings to ERIC wide-ranging health policy and government affairs expertise and will offer our members essential insights and recommendations to successfully navigate today’s complicated health care policy discourse,” said Gelfand.
Prior to her tenure at Chamber Hill, Bartlett served the specialty care drug division of Sanofi Genzyme and the Health Care Service Corporation (HCSC). She also represented health insurers through her regulatory work for America’s Health Insurance Plans (AHIP) as well as providers through her work as legislative counsel for the American Medical Group Association (AMGA).
Bartlett’s public sector 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, patient safety and 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).
Before her work for the Energy and Commerce Committee, Bartlett developed strategies for the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA), policies and program improvements as a HIPAA Privacy Program Specialist for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Office for Civil Rights (OCR), and assisted with investigations to secure HIPAA compliance.
Bartlett received a Bachelor of Arts degree in Journalism from Franklin College and a Juris Doctorate from the University of Kentucky College of Law. She is a member of the Kentucky Bar Association.