Health Care Delivery Work Group Update with Deborah Mizeur

Somehow it seems fitting that the person appointed to co-chair Maryland’s Health Care Delivery Work Group on rural hospitals spent her early career working on health access issues in very remote parts of Alaska of all places.

Deborah Mizeur cut her teeth on health policy while working on the problem of tuberculosis in the 1980s before moving to Washington, D.C. where she became an expert on national health policy as a key staff member of the Committee on Ways and Means in Congress.  It was during that time that she held primary policy responsibilities on issues that ranged from health tax and coverage expansion to health quality, information technology, and Part B Medicare reimbursement.

It was only after working decades on federal and state health issues that Deborah started a second life as a clinical herbalist, nutritionist, Reiki master, and owner of the Apotheosis organic herb farm located outside of Chestertown, which she shares with her wife, former State Delegate Heather Mizeur.

And while the vast majority of her energy goes into running Apotheosis, she agreed last spring to co-chair, along with Joseph Ciotola, the health officer and EMS director for Queen Anne’s County, a study group on the future of rural hospitals in Maryland, particularly on the Eastern Shore.

In her interview with the Spy, Deborah talks about the remarkable opportunities to create a new model for rural health care and regional support for the Mid-Shore. She also talks about the current focus on the working group and the timetable to meet her goal of having a final report ready for review by September of 2017.

The next meeting of the Health Care Delivery Work Group will be in Cambridge on November 1 at the Hyatt Regency from 1PM to 5PM. Another session in planned for Chestertown on January 9.

This video is approximately thirteen minutes in length