DeBrunner & Associates is a dynamic health care policy consulting and advocacy firm built on a foundation of expertise, experience, creativity, resourcefulness, and tenacity and specializing in the complex relationship between the government and private entities in the United States health care system.

Working only on health care matters, we are a different kind of health policy and government relations firm: we represent the perfect marriage of an exceptionally high level of knowledge and technical expertise in government health care policy and the political skill and relationships – in the executive and legislative branches of government and on both sides of the political aisle – needed to solve our clients’ public policy problems. To this marriage we bring an unusual degree of creativity: a creativity born of a deep-seated understanding of government health care policy that enables us to see opportunities and potential where others see only problems and barriers.

Behind these capabilities is a team whose members have worked for state and federal governments, health care providers, and provider associations. Together, these capabilities – and the decades of experience behind them – enable DeBrunner & Associates to see multiple options for addressing the problems our clients bring to us and help us work with those clients to decide on whether to pursue policy, political, or technical solutions for those challenges.

Perhaps more than any other capability, our consulting team speaks the language of the public officials with whom we interact: the language of health care policy, the language of Medicare and Medicaid, the language of regulations and laws and policies and practices, and the language of politics. Together, these talents, powered by a solid foundation of experience, expertise, knowledge, and an exceptional capacity to develop and use data, enable us to help our clients address their problems, chart their futures, and build and retain a strong bottom line.

To learn more about how DeBrunner & Associates can work for you, contact us today.

Charles DeBrunner, our founder, launched DeBrunner & Associates as the culmination of a distinguished career in health policy, beginning in Pennsylvania’s state Medicaid program, where he was the principal architect of the state’s Medicaid DRG system. After serving as vice president of finance of the Hospital Association of Pennsylvania, Charlie embarked on a career as a private health policy consultant and in 1995 launched his own consulting firm with a national consulting practice. He also was the founding executive director of the National Association of Urban Hospitals (now the Alliance of Safety-Net Hospitals) and the Safety-Net Association of Pennsylvania.

The firm Charlie established remains very much in his image today: creative; deeply invested in the nuts and bolts of state and federal health care policy; resourceful in its use of data as a tool for both policy analysis and policy development; highly focused on effective communication with public officials and forceful advocacy; and committed to improving the ability of its clients to serve their patients and consumers. Charlie continues to employ this approach today in his “retirement” through his work as the elected controller of the city of Harrisburg.