MOCAAPI

Mar 15, 2010 A Senate panel today unanimously approved Governor Chris Christie’s cabinet nominee, Dr. Poonam Alaigh, as the Commisioner of the Department of Health and Senior Services.

Until Saturday, Alaigh was a practicing physician specializing in vascular diseases. She said today that as commissioner she would volunteer as a doctor but refrain from practicing.

Horizon Blue Cross Blue Shield of New Jersey, the largest health insurer in the state, hired Alaigh 11 months ago as its executive medical director for quality and care management. Committee members said her varied background would be an asset to her new position.

Alaigh told the senators her goals are to uphold the law and put "best practices" in place to deliver high-quality health care to state residents.

Her department faces challenges in the coming bleak budget year, including 15,000 to 17,000 legal immigrants who are slated to be removed from the state’s Family Care health insurance plan. Alaigh conceded those residents likely will become charity cases, in a state where hospitals are losing money and already are not reimbursed 100 percent for such care.

She also said patient choice has to be balanced against the cost of providing services.

"As a physician, I know how important it is to have choice," Alaigh said. "On the flip side, I also see how these charges have no ceiling in certain cases. ... There has to be some sort of oversight."

Alaigh, 45 of Warren, practices medicine at the New Jersey Veterans Administration Hospital in Lyons and is a member of the College of New Jersey Board of Trustees and has served as president of the American Heart Association of North Jersey. She is a patron member of AAPI.

Alaigh has a multifaceted background in health care administration and delivery, including clinical practice hospital practice, hospital administration, managed care, pharmaceutical medicine, and health care policy.

Prior to joining Horizon BCBSNJ, Alaigh served as national medical director for GlaxoSmithKline and was working with health plans on a number of national issues, including better use of health care technology, the reduction of disparities in health care and healthcare access to the under and uninsured population. She is also an assistant professor in the Department of Family Practice at UMDNJ/Robert Wood Johnson University Medical School.

Alaigh has had publications in the field of vascular disease and population health. She is a board certified internist with a specialty in vascular diseases and is certified as a Diplomate in Internal Medicine and licensed to practice in New York and New Jersey.

She received her MD and her masters in health care policy and management at State University of New York at Stony Brook. Alaigh is a fellow of the American College of Physicians, one of the founding members of SATHI (the South Asian Total Healthcare Initiative) a program of the UMDNJ-RWJMS in New Jersey, is the past president and current member of the Board of Directors for the American Heart Association, Northern New Jersey chapter and the Founders' affiliate. She was appointed to serve on Governor-Elect Corzine's Transition Team on health care policy, strategies and issues in 2005.
As a U.S. attorney, Larkins was involved the oversight and management of all operations of the US Attorney's Newark office, including implementing all significant policies established by the U.S. Attorney and the Department of Justice, acting as Ethics Office.

We at MOCAAPI are excited by her appointment and would like to extend our heartiest congratulations on behalf of the entire MOCAAPI family . We look forward to working with her in improving the delivery of quality healthcare in the State of New Jersey.