In 1986 Lee was selected to be the first chairman of the newly established Physician Payment Review Commission, charged by Congress to develop recommendations for changing the methods used to pay physicians under the Medicare program. From 1993 to 1997, he returned to Washington to serve once more as assistant secretary of health. The Gustav O. Lienhard Award is funded by an endowment from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. Gustav O. Lienhard was chair of the foundation's board of trustees from the organization's establishment in 1971 to his retirement in 1986. Given annually, the award recognizes outstanding national achievement in improving personal health care services in the United States.
Nominees are eligible for consideration without regard to education or profession.
This year's committee was chaired by Gordon H. DeFriese, Ph.D., director and professor of social medicine, epidemiology, and health policy administration at the Cecil G. Sheps Center for Health Services Research, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. More information on the Lienhard Award Copyright 2001 by the National Academy of Sciences. All rights reserved.