Helen Darling
President
Helen Darling is president of the National Business Group on Health (formerly Washington Business Group on Health), a national non-profit, membership organization devoted exclusively to providing practical solutions to its employer-members' most important health care problems and representing large employers' perspective on national health policy issues. Its 283+ members, including 63 of the Fortune 100 in 2010, purchase health and disability benefits for over 50 million employees, retirees and dependents.
The Business Group's Institute on Health Care Costs and Solutions is devoted to finding practical solutions from a business perspective to the nation's growing crisis of rapidly rising costs and affordability of care, on top of continuing problems of patient safety and quality. The Business Group's National Committee on Evidence-Based Benefit Design, Global Health Benefits Institute and National Leadership Committee on Consumerism and Engagement are ways the membership is engaging in value purchasing and the global economy. In 2009, Darling was given the Keystone Award, WorldatWork's highest honor, in recognition of her contributions to human resources and benefits. She was named in 2003-2007 as one of the"100 Most Powerful People in Health Care" in the U.S. by Modern Healthcare. She was selected in 2003 as a National Associate to the National Academy of Sciences in recognition of her contributions to the Institute of Medicine. She was given the President's Award by the American College of Occupational and Environmental Medicine in 2010.
Darling serves on: the Committee on Performance Measurement of the National Committee for Quality Assurance (co-chair for 10 years); the Medical Advisory Panel, Technology Evaluation Center (Blue Cross Blue Shield Association); the Institute of Medicine's Roundtable on Value and Science-Driven Health Care; Medicare Coverage Advisory Committee; and the National Advisory Council of AHRQ. She is on the Board of Directors of the National Quality Forum, the Congressionally-created Reagan-Udall Foundation and the National eHealth Collaborative; along with a number of other advisory and editorial boards. She is featured on CNN, CNBC, ABC and NPR on trends in health care costs and benefits. She is also widely quoted in the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, The Economist, Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, Business Insurance and many other journals.
Previously, Darling served as practice leader at Towers Watson (formerly Watson Wyatt Worldwide), and directed the purchasing of health benefits and disability at Xerox Corporation for 55,000 U.S. employees, their dependents and retirees. Before joining Xerox, Darling was a principal at William W. Mercer. Earlier in her career, Darling was an advisor to Sen. David Durenberger, the ranking Republican on the Health Subcommittee of the Senate Finance Committee. She directed three studies at the Institute of Medicine for the National Academy of Sciences. Darling received a master's degree in demography and sociology and a Bachelor of Science degree in history and English, cum laude, from the University of Memphis.
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