Dr. Denise St. Clair, Director, Health Policy & Interoperability, is a health policy expert with over 25 years of experience. Denise leads all work related to advancing the use of HL7 FHIR standards throughout Federal and state government projects. She also leads current engagements with the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) and has experience supporting numerous Federal and state health care entities including AHRQ, CDC, HRSA, NIH, ONC, among others. Denise serves as a bridge between policy and technology, translating our clients’ policy and business needs to our technology teams to ensure that we build the best technical solutions to solve the specific issues at hand. With a deep understanding of health policy and over two decades of experience working with health care data and as a health services researcher, Denise focuses on ensuring our solutions are evidence-based and data-driven and always focused on the goal of patient-centered health care.

Denise has subject matter expertise in health policy specifically related to health information technology, digital transformation, public and private health insurance, health equity, health communication, health system innovation and transformation to value-based payment systems, health care quality measurement and quality reporting, and user engagement with health care information. She is passionate about interoperability and the opportunity to use open standards to ensure patients are in control of their health care journey. As a Senior Policy Expert at CMS, she served as a primary liaison for policy strategy and policy development across the components of CMS touching all payers – Medicare Fee-for-Service (FFS), Medicare Advantage, Medicaid FFS and managed care, and Federally-facilitated exchange plans – and patients regulated by the Agency and the teams responsible for implementing, executing, and assessing compliance with program policy. In this role she was lead author on the Interoperability and Patient Access Final Rule, and the Advancing Interoperability and Improving Prior Authorization Processes Proposed Rule.

Denise has a PhD in Mass Communications from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, an MA in African Studies from Howard University, and a BA in International Studies and Political Science from Manhattanville College.