Carol Blackford is the Executive Vice President of Payment and Health Care Delivery Policy at AdvaMed. AdvaMed’s Payment and Health Care Delivery Policy department develops and advocates for policies to ensure and expand patient access to medical technologies by improving coverage, coding, and payment processes used by Medicare and commercial payers.
Ms. Blackford comes to AdvaMed with over two decades of health care policy experience. Prior to joining AdvaMed in 2023, Ms. Blackford served as a Senior Executive and Director of the Hospital and Ambulatory Policy Group in the Center for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS). In this role, Ms. Blackford had responsibility for payment and benefits policy on the acute care side of the Medicare Fee-For Service Program. These payment systems, which account for approximately $270 billion in Medicare spending, include inpatient and outpatient hospital services, physician services, Part B drugs and laboratory services, and other acute care services and providers. During her 28 year career at CMS, Ms. Blackford lead work in every major Medicare fee-for-service payment system and served in a number of enterprise wide leadership roles, including serving as the Agency’s COVID-19 Pandemic Response Coordinator.
Carol holds a B.A in Political Science from McDaniel College and a Master’s of Public Policy from The College of William and Mary.