Austin family physician named to new position at HHSC

posted 11.01.11

Family medicine has a new champion among state officials. Mark Chassay, M.D., of Austin will become deputy executive commissioner for the Office of Health Policy and Clinical Services as of Jan. 1, 2012. In this newly created position at the state’s Health and Human Services Commission, Chassay will focus on coordinating health and clinical policy to ensure a coordinated approach to medical policy.

“In his new role, Dr. Chassay will oversee the HHSC Office of the Medical Director, Office of e-Health Coordination, Office of Acquired Brain Injury, the Office of Informal Dispute Resolution, and health policy, and he will work closely with the new Texas Health Care Quality Institute,” said HHSC Commissioner Tom Suehs in a statement released in late October.

Chassay serves as head team physician for the Department of Intercollegiate Athletics at the University of Texas at Austin, coordinating multidiscipline sports health services for over 600 student athletes. In this role, he serves as medical director for the training room clinics and supervises a team of physicians and athletic trainers. He is co-founder of Texas Sports & Family Medicine, PLLC, and has served as president of the Travis County Medical Society.

He earned his medical degree from the University of Texas Medical School at Houston in 1992, and completed a family practice residency at Memorial Hermann Hospital Southwest in Houston in 1995. Then he moved to southern California where he completed a primary care sports medicine fellowship at Kaiser Permanente.

TAFP CEO Tom Banning believes Chassay’s appointment is a welcome sign that state leaders intend to transform Texas’ fragmented health care system into one that provides higher quality, better coordinated, and more efficient care. “This is a tremendous opportunity to really drive system reform and redesign,” says Banning. “I can think of no better person than Mark to lead the charge.”