Heather McComas, PharmD, has been Director of the American Medical Association’s (AMA’s) Administrative Simplification Initiatives division since January 2014. In her role at the AMA, Heather focuses on reducing administrative burdens and streamlining manual processes so that physicians can focus on what matters most—patient care. She regularly participates in standards development organizations, such as the National Council for Prescription Drug Programs and HL7. She has testified on the AMA’s behalf before the National Committee on Vital and Health Statistics Subcommittee on Standards and the ONC Health IT Advisory Committee on various administrative simplification issues, including prior authorization. She is Co-chair of the Workgroup for Electronic Data Interchange’s (WEDI’s) Prior Authorization Subworkgroup. Additionally, she serves on both the CAQH Index and CAQH Pharmacy Index Councils.
Prior to coming to the AMA, Heather worked for several years in the pharmaceutical industry in medical publishing and medical information. She received bachelor’s and master’s degrees in English from the University of Kansas and a PharmD from the University of Wisconsin–Madison. She is a registered pharmacist in Illinois.