Sinha named a policy director for Pfizer

Alumnus Sunil K. Sinha

Sunil K. Sinha, MBA alumnus and member of the Department of Management External Advisory Board, is the new Federal Field Medical Policy Director within the Worldwide Policy and Public Affairs Group of Pfizer, Inc. 

Sinha, an M.D., will split his time between New York where he’ll work on international policy and public affairs and Washington, D.C. where he’ll work on Federal Government Affairs which would include the responsibility of covering Medicare and Medicaid issues. 

Sinha was also elected to a three year term as Regent for Maryland of the American College of Healthcare Executives, a national professional society based in Chicago representing 35,000 members involved in healthcare operations and leadership.

At Pfizer, Sinha is responsible for policy analysis and project management activities in support of the Policy, Public Affairs and Public Relations activities of Pfizer related to federal policies, regulations and laws.

Prior to coming to Pfizer, Sinha served as a senior medical officer in the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) and was responsible for coordinating the quality initiatives within the Medicare Advantage, Medicare Drug Benefit and Special Needs Programs.

Sinha also served as Division Director within the Quality Measurement and Health Assessment Group and worked on the National Voluntary Hospital Reporting Initiative, Doctors Office Quality Initiative, Measures Manager project, Chronic Care Improvement Pilot and the Medicare Quality Monitoring System (MQMS) database activity.  He represented the CMS on the interagency taskforce, which produces the National Healthcare Quality and National Healthcare Disparities Reports.

Sinha worked at the Department of Veterans’ Affairs from 1999 until 2003 and served as Director of the Managed Care Clinical Center of the VA Maryland Health Care System within VISN 5 (Veteran’s Integrated Service Network).  In this capacity he also served as the Chief of Performance Measures for his health care system as well as Chairperson of the Performance Measures committee for VISN 5.  He was selected to attend the departments Healthcare Leadership Institute (HCLI) and Leadership VA (LVA) leadership development programs.

Prior to joining the Department of Veterans Affairs, Sinha practiced Internal Medicine in a 45-member multi-specialty clinic in Illinois and served as Chairman of the Department of Medicine. He maintains his teaching and clinical affiliations as an Attending at the Baltimore VA Medical Center, where he has a primary care clinic.

Sinha is board certified by the American Board of Internal Medicine, American Board of Quality Assurance and Utilization Review, American College of Healthcare Executives and the American College of Physician Executives.  He is a Fellow of the American College of Physicians and serves as a council member for the Maryland chapter.  He is a Senior Fellow of the Council for Excellence in Government.  He is a past President of the Maryland chapter of the American College of Healthcare Executives and currently serves as the Regent for Maryland. He received that organization’s Early Career Achievement Award in 2002 and Senior Executive Achievement Award in 2007.  He received the CMS Administrator's Achievement Award in 2004 and the Administrator’s Citation Award in 2007.  He has served on the editorial Board of the Journal of Healthcare Management.

Sinha has a keen interest in quality measurement and performance improvement and has been a senior examiner for the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award program, and serves as the Chairperson for the Governing Board of the Maryland Performance Excellence Award program. He also serves as an examiner for the National Quality Forums’ (NQF) National Health Care Quality Award and the Department of Veteran’s Affairs Robert Carey Award.

Sinha received his medical education in India and completed an Internal Medicine Residency at the Loyola University Medical Center in Chicago, where he served as Associate Chief Resident and was recipient of the Intern of the Year Award.  He received his MBA in management from the Southern Illinois University College of Business and is pursuing an MS in Information Systems from the Johns Hopkins University Carey Business School.