Doug Farmer, deputy director of the Kansas Health Policy Authority, will leave the agency next month to take a new job as vice president of public affairs at the Sunflower Foundation.
Farmer has worked in Kansas government in various capacities, beginning as an analyst in the Governor’s Budget Office. Since March 2008 he has been director of the State Employee Health Benefit Plan, which is jointly overseen by the health policy authority and the Health Care Commission. Since 2009, he has also served as the agency’s deputy director.
His last day at the agency will be Dec. 17, according to an email sent Tuesday evening to about 250 agency staff and board members by health policy authority Executive Director Andy Allison. By Wednesday morning, the email had been forwarded to many others not on the agency’s official mailing list.
Doug Farmer
The Sunflower Foundation was closed for the Thanksgiving holiday beginning Wednesday and so planned its official announcement of Farmer’s hiring sometime next week, said Billie Hall, the foundation’s chief executive officer.
“I’m excited the news is out,” she said. “We’re thrilled to have Doug join the foundation.”
Hall said Farmer in addition to working on policy issues for the foundation also will head its advocacy fellowship program, which is in its third year.
The program provides leadership training for advocates. The foundation will announce its latest list of fellows sometime in the days ahead, Hall said.
Before taking the job at the health policy authority, Farmer was deputy secretary at the Kansas Department of Health and Environment. He earned his undergraduate degree in political science at the University of California in Davis and a master’s in public administration at James Madison University.
Allison said in his email that Mike Michael, deputy director of the state employee health plan, will assume Farmer’s responsibilities at the health policy authority.
“During his tenure, and despite difficult budget times, Doug provided exceptional leadership for the State Employee Health Plan and for the agency as a whole,” Allison wrote.
The Sunflower Foundation was created in August 2000 as part of a $75 million settlement between Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Kansas, the Kansas Attorney General’s Office and Kansas Insurance Department. The agreement creating the foundation settled lawsuits concerning Blue Cross’ charitable assets from company operations from 1941 to 1969.
Under the settlement terms, the Sunflower Foundation, which is based in Topeka, is charged with serving the health needs of Kansans with emphasis on programs serving the poor, uninsured and underinsured, promoting preventive health care and reducing tobacco use.