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Susan Dentzer          

President & CEO of America’s Physician Groups

Susan Dentzer is the President and Chief Executive Officer of America’s Physician Groups, the organization of more than 335 physician practices that provide patient-centered, coordinated, and integrated care for patients while being accountable for cost and quality. APG members provide care to nearly 90 million patients nationwide.

Dentzer is a highly respected health and health policy thought leaders and a frequent speaker and commentator and an author of commentaries and analyses in print publications such as Modern Healthcare, NEJM (New England Journal of Medicine)-Catalyst, and the Annals of Internal Medicine. She was also the editor and lead author of the book Health Care Without Walls: A Roadmap for Reinventing U.S. Health Care, available on Amazon.com.

From 2019 to February 2022, Dentzer was Senior Policy Fellow for the Robert J. Margolis Center for Health Policy at Duke University. She has also served as senior policy adviser to the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation; editor-in-chief of the policy journal Health Affairs; and on-air Health Correspondent for the PBS NewsHour. Dentzer wrote and hosted the 2015 PBS documentary, Reinventing American Healthcare, focusing on the innovations pioneered by the Geisinger Health System and spread to health systems across the nation.

Dentzer is an elected member of the National Academy of Medicine (formerly the Institute of Medicine); an elected member of the Council on Foreign Relations; a fellow of the National Academy of Social Insurance; and a fellow of the Hastings Center, a nonpartisan bioethics research institute. She is the chair of the Board of Directors of Research!America, which advocates on behalf of biomedical and health-related research and innovation, and is also a member of the Board of Directors of the International Rescue Committee, a leading global humanitarian organization. She is a member of the Boards of Advisors for RAND Health and for the Philip R. Lee Institute of Health Policy Studies at the University of California-San Francisco. She was a Nieman Fellow at Harvard University in 1986-87.

Dentzer graduated from Dartmouth and holds a master’s in health care delivery science from Dartmouth as well. She is a trustee emerita of the college, and chaired the Dartmouth Board of Trustees from 2001 to 2004. She serves on the advisory board for the Center for Global Health Equity at Dartmouth, and was a member of the Board of Advisors of Dartmouth’s Geisel School of Medicine for two decades. Dentzer holds an honorary doctorate in humane letters from Muskingum University.

Speech Topics


Higher Education

Dentzer is chair of the Dartmouth Board of Trustees and has a longstanding interest in higher education. She speaks on a range of topics in this field, including the importance of liberal arts education; the costs and value of higher education in general; critical issues in university and academic governance. She has also delivered several commencement addresses. Rather than giving off-the-shelf address, she prefers to tailor those speeches so they pertain more directly to the institution at which she is speaking and to the students who are graduating, in order to give the occasion a personal touch.

The Economy

From consumer spending to international trade to the performance of the financial markets, Dentzer takes a broad look at the economy’s performance and examines the underlying factors likely to shape that performance in the future. Dentzer specializes in making these presentations sophisticated and yet “user-friendly” and readily understandable for non-specialist audiences.

The Federal Budget

Dentzer has followed federal fiscal policy for two decades, from the era of federal budget deficits to surpluses and back again to the current budget deficits. She speaks knowledgeably on the debate over restraining the growth of spending, cutting or raising taxes and balancing the nation’s commitments to health care, retirement and social programs.

Social Security

Dentzer has followed closely the debate over reforming Social Security and creating a system of individual accounts within the program. She speaks knowledgeably on the economics and politics of Social Security, and places these in the broader context of the overall effects on the U.S. and the world of the rapid aging of the population.

Health Care

Dentzer speaks on a wide variety of topics in health care, including rising health care costs; aging; breakthroughs in treatment and research; health insurance issues; health policy issues such as Medicare reform, the uninsured, and prescription drug coverage. She also speaks frequently about Washington and health care –what’s ahead in Congress and within the Bush administration, and how that could have an effect on patients, health policy and providers.

The Future of Healthcare Policy

As an expert on healthcare policy, Susan Dentzer cuts through the rhetoric and examines the latest policy changes and explains what they mean for the future.

She will touch upon:

The Future of Medicare reform

Social security, Medicare, and Medicaid

Rising to meet America's Healthcare Challenge

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Political Economics

In this informative presentation, Susan Dentzer analyzes fiscal and budgetary problems facing the US, outlines current disputes, and explains whether or not they revolve around healthcare. While examining current battles between Congress and the White House, she offers both short-and long-term solutions, and explains what it all means for consumers, associations, and corporations.

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News


What Are the Effects and Requirements for Employers Under Health ...
But how does it affect Americans who get their insurance through their workplace ? NewsHour analyst Susan Dentzer joins Ray Suarez to help answer frequently ...
Susan Dentzer | CFO Network 2014 | The Wall Street Journal
Susan Dentzer is Senior Policy Adviser at the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, the nation's largest philanthropy focused on health and health care in the ...
Talk will look at health care law's impact - News - Citizens' Voice
[email protected], 570-821-2115- What: Susan Dentzer, a journalist and senior policy adviser for the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, will speak ...
Susan Dentzer on reinventing health care - Wichita Business Journal
What we are really engaged in is a whole lot of reinvention on how we provide...

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