A lawyer from UnitedHealthcare’s general counsel team will be the second Chief Privacy Officer for the Office of National Coordinator for Health IT, according to an emailed statement from Karen DeSalvo, the head of the ONC. Lucia Savage’s appointment is the latest in a series of people moves at the ONC following DeSalvo’s plan to realign the leadership structure announced in May.
Savage will advise the National Coordinator on critical health data privacy and security policies and play a role in the design of new policies.
She is scheduled to start next week. Savage currently serves as senior associate general counsel for the largest private health insurer in the country. She manages a team that represents UnitedHealthcare in large data transactions associated with health information exchanges, healthcare transparency projects, among other things.
When Investment Rhymes with Canada
Canada has a proud history of achievement in the areas of science and technology, and the field of biomanufacturing and life sciences is no exception.
She has also worked as general counsel at Pacific Business Group on Health, a nonprofit where she headed up legal affairs and state policy initiatives for an employer healthcare purchasing coalition and its small group health insurance exchange, PacAdvantage.
Savage replaces Joy Pritts, who served at the ONC for four years until she stepped down in July. In contrast to Savage, she came to the role from the education sector — having worked at Georgetown University as an assistant research professor and as a senior scholar with the O’Neill Institute for National and Global Health Law.
There have been a steady stream of exits from the ONC in the past several months. Judy Muphy, the Chief Nursing Officer, is leaving later this month. In September, Doug Fridsma, who was the Chief Science Officer and Director of the Office of Science and Technology, said he would take on the CEO role at the American Medical Informatics Association. Lygeia Ricciardi, who led Consumer eHealth, left over the summer. In May, Karen DeSalvo, M.D., National Coordinator for Health IT announced a realigned leadership structure at the ONC.
