Julie Barnes is the Executive Director of Breakaway Policy Strategies, leading a team of experts to provide health care stakeholders with guidance about the dramatic transformation of the American health care system. With years of experience as a health care attorney, policy analyst and Capitol Hill staffer, Julie is a frequent writer and speaker on the American health care system.
Most recently, Julie was the Director of Health Policy at the Bipartisan Policy Center (BPC), overseeing the Health Project initiatives on health insurance exchanges, health professional workforce issues and health information technology. More recently, Julie managed a joint project with the BPC Economic Policy team on health care cost containment, led by former U.S. Senate Majority Leaders Tom Daschle and Bill Frist, and Senator Pete Domenici and Dr. Alice Rivlin.
Prior to her role at the BPC, Julie directed the New America Foundation Health Policy Program when federal health reform efforts were underway. Julie oversaw New America's outreach activities to educate industry stakeholders and policymakers about the issues in the health care reform debate and facilitated discussion among the key players to identify areas of agreement. In addition to insurance and delivery system reforms, Julie focused on state reform efforts, health information technology issues, and legal barriers to health reform.
Before joining New America, Julie was a litigator and regulatory counsel in the Health Care Practice Group of Crowell & Moring's Washington, D.C. office. In addition to litigating compensation and benefit disputes, her practice included advice and counsel to managed care organizations, self- funded employers, behavioral health organizations, disease management companies and health- related trade associations on state and federal regulatory and litigation matters. Julie has expertise in numerous statutes related to health care and employee benefits, including ERISA, HIPAA portability and privacy, Medicare, Medicaid, and the Federal Employees Health Benefits Program.
Julie worked on Capitol Hill as a legislative assistant on budget and health care issues for a Midwest congressman during the 1993-1994 national health reform debate. This experience was the catalyst for her career in finding solutions to the American health care system's problems.
Julie is the author of several policy papers, the editor-in-chief of a legal textbook published by the Bureau of National Affairs entitled Managed Care Litigation, and is a frequent speaker for the American Health Lawyers Association. She received her law degree from American University's Washington College of Law and undergraduate degree from the University of Iowa.
