Chris Jennings

Chris Jennings is a fellow at the Bipartisan Policy Center. He is an over three decades-long health policy veteran of the White House, Congress and the private sector. Mr. Jennings is currently President of Jennings Policy Strategies (JPS), a nationally respected health care consulting firm committed to assisting foundations, purchasers, health systems and other aligned stakeholders develop policies to ensure higher quality, more affordable and sustainable health care.

In January 2014, Mr. Jennings departed from his second tour of duty in the White House where he served as Senior Advisor to the President for Health Policy and Coordinator of Health Reform.  He served in a similar capacity in the Clinton White House for nearly eight years.  From his positions in the executive branch, Mr. Jennings has helped implement access and delivery reform provisions of the Affordable Care Act as well as played leadership roles in the development, passage and implementation of bipartisan health reforms, such as the Children’s Health Insurance Program, the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA), the Prescription Drug User Fee Act (PDUFA) of 1997 and major Medicare reforms in the Balanced Budget Act (BBA) of 1997.

In his decade of service in the U.S. Senate, he served as the Deputy Director of the Special Committee on Aging for three Senators (including his home state Senator, John Glenn) and led major reform efforts in the areas of long-term care, prescription drug coverage/cost containment, and rural health care.  In this capacity, he also served in a major role for the U.S. Bipartisan Commission on Health Care (also known as the “Pepper Commission”).