Thomas Valuck, MD, MHSA, JD Medical Officer and Senior Advisor Center for Medicare Management (CMM) at the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS)

Dr. Thomas Valuck is Medical Officer and Senior Advisor in the Center for Medicare Management (CMM) at the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS).  He advises CMS leadership on policy issues related to Medicare’s payment systems and quality initiatives, particularly pay for performance.  Recently, Dr. Valuck served as Director of CMS’ Special Program Office of Value-Based purchasing, which was temporarily created to launch physician and hospital pay for performance.  He earned the 2007 Administrator’s Achievement Award for leadership in implementing Medicare pay-for-performance initiatives.

Dr. Valuck, a native of Kirksville, Missouri, has degrees in biological science and medicine from the University of Missouri-Kansas City.  He took clinical training in pediatrics at the Children’s Mercy Hospital in Kansas City, Missouri, before obtaining a Master’s degree in health services administration from the University of Kansas.

Dr. Valuck was employed for over nine years in various executive roles, including Vice President of Medical Affairs, at the University of Kansas Medical Center (KUMed) in Kansas City, Kansas.  While at KUMed, Dr. Valuck was awarded the Robert Wood Johnson Health Policy Fellowship, a one year sabbatical during which he served on the staff of the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee.

Dr. Valuck relocated to Washington, DC to attend the Georgetown University Law Center where he worked on the Georgetown Journal of Law and Public Policy and earned the BNA Health Law Award and the Federal Legislation Clinic Advocacy Award.  As a law student, he worked for the White House Council of Economic Advisers as a health policy assistant to Dr. Mark McClellan, who was the President’s Chief Health Policy Adviser at that time.  Before joining CMS, Dr. Valuck was an associate at the law firm of Latham & Watkins, where he practiced regulatory health law.