On December 20, 2024, The Washington Post published an article acknowledging Paragon’s rise to influence in the health care policy landscape.
From the article:
Brian Blase sat onstage, flanked by former Trump Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar and former Obama HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius, nodding as the three discussed the need to overhaul Medicare payments.
It was July 2024 and a rare moment of odd bedfellows agreeing on the same health policy. Experts from the American Enterprise Institute, Brookings Institution and the Center for American Progress would soon take the stage, too — all calling for Medicare to adopt site-neutral payments, a bid to level reimbursement for hospitals and physician groups that performed the same procedure.
But it was also a moment that marked the ascendance of Paragon Health Institute, the small policy shop founded by Blase in November 2021, which had organized the day’s event.
Now Paragon is at the center of Washington health policy conversations — and potentially for the next four years, as well. Blase is helping shape the incoming Trump administration’s priorities, overseeing HHS policy planning for the transition team, according to people who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss confidential plans; Theo Merkel, another senior Paragon official, is also working on the transition.
The full article can be found in The Washington Post.
