Joe Baker has been President of the Medicare Rights Center since June 2009. Mr. Baker is a member of the Institute of Medicine's Board on Health Care Services and Committee on Geographic Variation in Health Care Spending and Promotion of High-Value Care. He also serves on the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services' Advisory Panel on Outreach and Education. He is an adjunct professor at the New York University School of Law, where he teaches a class on implementation of the Affordable Care Act.
Previously, he was the deputy secretary for health and human services in New York State under Governor David A. Paterson, where he was instrumental in developing Medicaid reforms and a proposal to extend health coverage to younger New Yorkers. Mr. Baker served as assistant deputy secretary for health and human services under Governor Eliot Spitzer, after having directed the Health Care Bureau under Spitzer when he was attorney general of New York. Mr. Baker was executive vice president of Medicare Rights from 1994 to 2001, and prior to that was associate director of legal services for Gay Men’s Health Crisis. He is a graduate of the University of Virginia School of Law.