Our Professional Staff
Joan E. DaVanzo, Ph.D., M.S.W.
Joan.Davanzo@dobsondavanzo.com
(703) 260-1761
Joan E. DaVanzo, Ph.D., M.S.W., is Chief Executive Officer of Dobson | DaVanzo. Before she co-founded the firm, she served as Vice President at The Lewin Group for nine years. Her research interests include Medicare payment policy and the socio-medical aspects of normal aging. She has taught courses on various aspects of aging at UCLA. Dr. DaVanzo has expertise in both qualitative and quantitative analyses, and brings a clinical perspective to her consulting work. Dr. DaVanzo has extensive experience in the use and interpretation of large clinical datasets.
She is currently working with Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) to develop and implement Outpatient Imaging Efficiency Measures. Hospital outpatient departments are required to report on these quality measures beginning in 2010. Measure development included a review of the clinical guidelines and research literature, validation of the measures using CMS 100% claims files, and presentation to the National Quality Forum for endorsement.
Dr. DaVanzo has studied (scored) the monetary impact of proposed legislation and/or changes in Medicare program coverage for many clients, including pharmaceutical and device manufacturers, patient advocate groups, and provider associations. She has developed cost estimates using Congressional Budget Office (CBO) scoring methodology for a variety of health services, including home infusion of IVIG, Medicare Diabetes Self-Management Training under H.R. 2425, dual energy x-ray absorptiometry (DXA), the Medicare payment add-on for blood clotting factor, oral antiemetic therapies for chemotherapy recipients, cochlear implants and osseointegrated bone anchored hearing solutions, as well as medical nutrition therapy, among others. Eleven years ago she worked with the Institute of Medicine to develop Medicare cost estimates for medically necessary dental care for radiation therapy recipients, skin cancer screening, and an extension of immunosuppressant therapies for transplant recipients beyond three years.
Dr. DaVanzo has led several retrospective cohort analyses comparing different types of clinical care, such as the post acute treatment of hip and knee replacements in IRFs vs. skilled nursing facilities (SNFs). She has also conducted a retrospective cohort study of protocol-driven wound care in SNFs using a defined treatment group and a randomly drawn control group of patients not receiving the protocol-driven care. For the National Colorectal Cancer Roundtable, she led a study to model the effect on Medicare expenditures of colorectal cancer screening of the pre-Medicare population aged 55 and over. She has led numerous surveys, including a survey of imaging providers’ equipment utilization for a coalition of providers and stakeholders. This study involved a Medicare claims analysis to determine utilization by modality and physician specialty to ensure that survey respondents were representative of the industry.
Dr. DaVanzo has led numerous diverse projects for CMS, including a study of the standards of care for long term care pharmacy while Medicare Part D was being implemented. The findings from this study helped to inform CMS as the Agency developed regulations for implementing the Part D benefit.
Prior to her work at The Lewin Group, Dr. DaVanzo served as Associate Director of the National Health Care Skill Standards Project at WestEd, a national nonprofit research and human services agency in San Francisco. Prior work also includes three years at the RAND Corporation where she worked on an evaluation of mental health services under CHAMPUS. She received a Master of Social Work degree from the New York University School of Social Work, and practiced psychotherapy for twelve years. She later received a Ph.D. in public health from the University of California, Los Angeles, where she was a Pew fellow.