Ben Steffen serves as the Acting Executive Director of the Maryland Health Care Commission. The Maryland Health Care Commission is an independent regulatory agency whose mission is to plan for health system needs, promote informed decision-making, increase accountability, and improve access to health care and health care coverage in Maryland. The MHCC administers the certificate of need program, Maryland small group insurance market reforms, the establishment of Maryland’s Health Information Exchange, and quality reporting initiatives for hospitals, nursing homes, and health plans. Prior to assuming this position, he served as the Director of the Commission’s Center for Information Services and Analysis. This Center has analytic and operational responsibilities for health care practitioner initiatives in the state including development of an All Payer Data Base and the Patient Centered Medical Home Program.

Mr. Steffen is board member for the Maryland Health Benefit Exchange, the organization established in 2011 by the Maryland Legislature to implement the insurance coverage expansion under the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA). He also serves on the Board of the Maryland Health Insurance Program, Maryland’s highly successful high risk insurance pool, that serves individuals that are unable to purchase insurance in the current Maryland individual market. Before joining the MHCC, he served as a budget analyst in the Health, Housing, and Income Security Division of the Congressional Budget Office, among activities he worked on the modeling that produced the estimates of reforms that ultimately led to the Medicare Prospective Payment System. Mr. Steffen holds a Master’s Degree from American University and has completed post-graduate work at the University Of Michigan. He is a former Peace Corps volunteer to Nepal.