The Magazine of Lenoir-Rhyne College
Spring 1999
The Magazine of Lenoir-Rhyne College
Spring 1999
1999 Distinguished Alumnus By Maria Manning Armstrong During L-R’s recent Alumni Association Awards Banquet, Dr. Louis Rossiter, ’71, received the 1999 Distinguished Alumnus Award for his work in health care services. Because of his efforts, health-care programs of the nation’s most vulnerable people have been strengthened and the high cost of health care for older Americans has slowed, resulting in cost increases lower than the previous double-digit rates. Health care has been the focus of most of Rossiter’s career, beginning as far back as the research and writing of his doctoral dissertation for his Ph.D. in economics from Chapel Hill in 1977. He presently teaches health economics in the graduate programs on the Medical College of Virginia campus of Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond, Va., and is the founding director of the David G. Williamson Jr. Institute for Health Studies there. During the Bush administration, he took a leave of absence from the university to serve as policy deputy for the administrator of the Health Care Financing Administration (HCFA). His appetite for this subject matter had its beginnings on the L-R campus, where he credits his economics professors Bill Mauney and Russell "Bud" Brown as being so provocative, enthusiastic and intellectual they gave him a true appreciation of the free market, as well as the role of government. Rossiter’s analytic mind also determined that because of the growth of the population, health care would be an interesting field of study for him. "You could project the figures for the next 80 years just by using demographic information," he said. "I knew that health care would be a booming field." Because economics is such an important science, Rossiter believes most students should have exposure to it, especially those in health-related disciplines. Not solely for business majors, Rossiter believes economics should be a part of a broad liberal arts education. He cites the example of his daughter, Diana, a criminal justice major at Roanoke College, whose interest in criminal justice developed due to a grandfather who was a policeman. Her coursework includes political science and accounting courses, which are required classes now due to an increase in white-collar crime. In his personal life, Rossiter said he is proudest of his daughter. Professionally, he is proudest of the changes made during the Bush administration regarding payments for health care services. While at HCFA, he managed the day-to-day activities of the office of the administrator, oversaw creation of the new $7 billion capital payment policy for hospitals and directed policy initiatives through the legislative process including Medigap reform, the creation of Medicare SELECT and managed care in Medicare and Medicaid. About the time he spent in Washington, Rossiter quotes Thomas Jefferson: "Go, serve your country, but return home." After his stint at HCFA, Rossiter said he was glad to return to academia. However, he also added that if called, he would serve again. Professor Brown was among the members of the audience honoring Rossiter, while Professor Mauney read a letter from the President of Morehouse School of Medicine who was Secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services during the Bush administration, Dr. Louis W. Sullivan. The Sullivan letter stated in part: "I am pleased that I had Lou Rossiter in my administration helping to achieve some significant changes in the way the federal government regulates, and pays for, health care. I salute Lenoir-Rhyne College for naming him a distinguished alumnus." Rossiter’s most recent research, a $1.1 million effort funded by Virginia Medicaid, dealt with the "Development and Evaluation of a Quality Assessment and Improvement Program for Medicaid Managed Care." The data provided by the research is now being used to provide new information to Medicaid managed care providers about the quality of care they provide and guidelines for improving the care. Currently, he is working on the book, Medicare Managed Care, which concerns changes that will allow beneficiaries to choose private health care plans. Rossiter has served on a large number of federal and state technical advisory panels; has served as consultant to a variety of prestigious non-profit and for profit corporations, including Merck and Co. and Kaiser Permanente Health Plans; and is frequently called upon to speak at national meetings. He has published more than 50 articles, edited 14 books and serves on the boards of four Virginia health care companies. In addition to his degree in economics from L-R, Rossiter holds a master’s degree in economics from the University of South Carolina and a doctorate degree in economics from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He is married to Emily B. Rossiter, president of Regulatory Resources, Inc., a bio-tech regulatory agency.
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