Joe Baker, one of the top architects of health policy in David Paterson's administration, is considering leaving.
Several sources involved in state health-care policy said that Baker, currently the deputy secretary for Health and Human Services, is mulling a return to the Medicare Rights Center. He served as executive vice president of that organization from 1994 to 2001 before he was tapped by then-Attorney General Eliot Spitzer for his health care bureau in 2002. Baker migrated to the second floor with Spitzer, and stayed on under Paterson.
Those sources also say Baker is being considered as president of the Medicare Rights Center. That organization's president, Robert Hayes, stepped down in February.
Baker was involved in developing the health care reimbursement restructuring implemented in this year's budget, and had a major hand in directing the development of a proposed extension of heath insurance to young people.
There is no firm agreement yet between Baker and the Medicare Rights Center. Recently, Spitzer appointees Laura Anglin, who served as budget director, and Astrid Glynn, who served as commissioner of the Department of Transportation, announced their departures from Paterson's administration.
