Tom McCaffery

Tom McCaffery most recently served as Assistant Secretary of Defense for Health Affairs at the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD).  In this role he was the senior civilian executive responsible for strategy, policy, and resourcing across the Military Health System and its over 500 healthcare facilities and over 130,000 military and civilian healthcare staff.  He also was responsible for oversight of the $36 billion Defense Health Program appropriation, which supports the education, training, and sustainment of the U.S. military’s medical force; the provision of medical care to 1.3 million active duty service members; and the $2 billion annual military medical research and development portfolio.  McCaffery also was responsible for the oversight of the Defense Health Agency and its administration of the TRICARE program, which provides healthcare to 9.6 million Service Members, their families, and retirees as well as the oversight of the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences, which operates the U.S. military’s medical and nursing schools.

Prior to his time at DoD, McCaffery served as a Vice President with Blue Shield of California.  His responsibilities there included leading the day-to-day activities guiding Blue Shield’s integration of a recently-acquired health plan serving over 500,000 Medicaid and Medicare beneficiaries in California and Arizona and leading Blue Shield’s CalPERS (California Public Employees Retirement System) business sector, which was responsible for all strategic initiatives, marketing, and pricing related to the 400,000-member CalPERS account.  Before coming to Blue Shield, Tom served as the Chief Deputy Director of Health Care Programs at the California Department of Health Services (DHS).  Prior to his tenure at DHS, Tom served as the Senior Vice President of the public policy and advocacy association representing California’s Catholic hospitals and health systems.