[nfbmi-talk] hope his deleg appt does same

[joe harcz Comcast]

Snyder's pick for health director to focus on fraud, better lifestyles

 

Paul Egan / Detroit News Lansing Bureau

 

Lansing — Michigan's incoming director of the Department of Community Health says she will encourage healthier lifestyles and seek to root out fraud and

abuse as ways of reducing the state's health care costs.

 

Gov.-elect Rick Snyder today named Olga Dazzo to the high-profile post. The health insurance industry veteran is the first woman Snyder has named to his

cabinet.

 

 

"We're a little obese, and we need to lose weight, and we need to move a little more," Dazzo told reporters after a news conference in Lansing at which

Snyder introduced her.

 

Reducing fraud is also among the many opportunities for cutting costs, along with the movement to electronic health records, which she said can eliminate

duplication and improve safety.

 

Dazzo, the president and CEO of Health Reform Innovations LLC, is a former president of Physicians Health Plan in Lansing and a former vice president and

executive director of Jackson Health Plans at Jackson Health Systems in Miami, Fla.

 

She is a graduate of Michigan State University, where she earned a bachelor's degree in accounting and a master's of business administration in finance.

 

Snyder said he is excited about having Dazzo as part of his team. He said her department will be grouped with the Department of Human Services and possibly

other departments in a "people and their families" group headed by a group executive who is yet to be named.

 

"There is an attitude that the only way to lower costs is to reduce the level of care. I reject that premise," Snyder said. "Olga understands that the decisions

she makes will directly impact the well-being of Michigan's most vulnerable citizens, and she will always have an eye toward delivering services more efficiently

so those who need treatment are able to get it."

 

Dazzo, who is fluent in Spanish, came to the United States as a child refugee in 1961 following the communist takeover of Cuba. She moved to Michigan in

1978.

 

Community Health is one of state government's biggest cost areas as Snyder seeks to balance a budget with a projected $1.6 billion deficit.

 

pegan at detnews.com

 

(517) 371-3660

Snyder's pick for health director to focus on fraud, better lifestyles | detnews.com | The Detroit News