Program Assistant, Making Health Care Affordable

The Organization

The Commonwealth Fund — among the first private foundations started by a woman philanthropist, Anna M. Harkness — was established in 1918 with the broad charge to enhance the common good. Today, the mission of The Commonwealth Fund is to promote a high-performing health care system that achieves better access, improved quality, and greater efficiency, particularly for society's most vulnerable, including low-income people, the uninsured, and people of color. The Fund carries out this mandate by supporting independent research on health care issues and making grants to improve health care practice and policy.

Our Values and Commitment to Equity

The Commonwealth Fund envisions a health care system that values and benefits all people equally — one that pursues equity in health care and health outcomes as well as in leadership and decision-making. We believe this requires an alliance of people and institutions across society working together to recognize and value the lived experience of all individuals; ensure the delivery of compassionate, affordable, quality health care; and strive for equitable outcomes for all. We place great value on the varied backgrounds and experiences our staff bring to our organization and encourage employees to bring their full selves to the workplace. We look for talented, nimble, empathetic, and supportive team players who are ready to roll up their sleeves, create impactful change, and celebrate accomplishments.

Program Summary

The United States spends nearly double what many other high-income countries spend on health care. Even so, health outcomes for Americans are often worse, and evidence of waste and inefficiency abounds.

The high level of U.S. spending puts a tremendous strain on businesses, governments, and household budgets. It makes care increasingly unaffordable for people — even to the point where many forgo or postpone needed care — and diverts resources away from other needs and priorities.

The Commonwealth Fund's Making Health Care Affordable program looks for ways to ensure that U.S. health care spending is efficient, sustainable, and designed to generate the best health outcomes possible. We work to understand the causes and impact of the increasing commercialization of health care and extreme profit-seeking behavior, and we encourage the adoption of evidenced-based approaches to lowering commercial prices. We also focus on high prescription drug prices, a major driver of costs.

These efforts complement the work of our Expanding Coverage and Access program to examine cost drivers in private and public insurance and to ensure coverage remains affordable and comprehensive.

This program focuses on:

• Studying the ongoing commercialization of health care in the U.S. and how this trend is affecting health care costs, quality, access, and equity. 
• Providing states with tools they can use to understand and control commercial health care spending and price growth.

General Position Description

Reporting to the vice president and providing assistance to the researcher, the program assistant is the staff member responsible for providing daily support for the Making Health Care Affordable Program and assisting in the Fund's research efforts. The program assistant will be expected to perform a variety of duties ranging from daily administrative and grants management tasks to writing, editing, and research responsibilities. The program assistant will also provide support to other program areas, as requested.

Specific Responsibilities: 

Duties fall into the following categories: 

Grants Management: 

• Provide support in the development of grants, including conducting background research, working with potential grantees to refine proposals and ensure completion of all required documents, assisting in internal reviews of proposals, and taking detailed notes and preparing summaries of review meetings for proposed grants. 
• Assist in the grant review and approval process, including drafting summaries of proposed grants, payment and reporting schedules, and letters of agreement.
• Provide ongoing grants management, including maintaining all program grant records in Salesforce, monitoring timelines and tracking grantee products, scheduling grant payments accordingly, scheduling and participating in check ins with grantees, reading and commenting on grantee products, and preparing memos analyzing completed projects. 

Program Development and Support 

• Prepare documents for internal meetings, including for the annual program plan, board updates, and other internal meetings, including the drafting of PowerPoint slides. 
• Act as a liaison with the Communications team to ensure the dissemination of all publications, including coordinating the review of draft grantee publications and the promotion of grantee-published articles; tracking products as they progress in the publication process; coordinating with grantees and Communications staff to produce webinars, podcasts, and other multimedia to promote grantee work and publicize the program. 
• Assist in the strategy development of the program by tracking progress and impact of the existing portfolio of grants, assessing the external environment, and incorporating the Fund's values and strategic priorities. 

Administrative Support

• Provide administrative support to the vice president, including calendar management, meeting support, correspondence, and distribution of program work. 
• Arrange appointments and schedule conference calls and occasional in-house meetings involved in the facilitation of discussion, content of materials for attendees, and minutes/reports of the meeting/conference. 
• Prepare correspondence to current and prospective grantees, consultants, and experts reviewing proposed projects. 

Research and Analysis 

• Conduct background research as needed by the vice president and researcher, including literature reviews, internet searches and tracking journals, working papers, legislative developments and public coverage of health policy issues. Summarize reports from Federal and private sources.
• Participate in the Fund's internal Research Team activities to collaborate with other Fund staff on intramural research publications as directed by hte researcher. Depending on organizational needs, this could include providing research support for Fund reports, fact sheets, and issue briefs based on Fund commissioned surveys, and Fund state data center. This work may include literature reviews, statistical analyses (using computer statistical software), data quality checks, and table and chart preparation. 
• Occasionally attend relevant meetings, conferences, and webinars to represent and support the work of the program and its grantees. 
• Provide research and writing support to vice president and researcher for Fund publications. This work includes editing grantee publications for style and content, preparing tables and charts as needed, and drafting summaries of grantee or Fund reports. 

The Fund's philosophy on successful performance in the job includes the willingness on the part of all staff members to handle any assignment necessary to further the goals of the institution. This may include taking on responsibility in other program areas if the need arises. 

Core Competencies & Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree with a major in public policy, public health, economics, or a related field strongly preferred. 
• Strong technical skills, including Microsoft Office (Excel, Word, and PowerPoint). Familiarity with Salesforce and STATA, SAS, or similar statistical software is beneficial. 
• Experience in reading peer-reviewed journal articles and analyzing and interpreting data. 
• Ability to multi-task, prioritize, and follow through, to effectively manage work and meet multiple tight deadlines. 
• Exceptional attention to detail and strong organizational skills. 
• Excellent written and oral communication skills. 
• Good judgement and the ability to act independently within standard guidelines. 
• Flexibility and skill in working as a team member. 

The Fund has a relatively small staff to initiate, develop, and implement projects that will best fulfill its mission of helping Americans lead healthy and productive lives. Judgment, integrity, and the ability to listen with sensitivity to others are traits that are particularly important in an organization of this size, where teamwork is essential to effectiveness. The ability to work collegially with a variety of Fund staff, as well as interest in and strong commitment to the Fund's mission and current grants programs, are key qualifications.

Location

Position is hybrid, based in our Washington, DC location.

Salary and How to Apply

The starting salary for this position is $57,456 - $71,820 depending on professional experience.