Elizabeth Helms
Liz Helms has been a leader within the patient’s rights movement since her recovery from Temporomandibular Joint Disorder (TMJ) in the mid-1990s. Her vision, breadth of knowledge and unwavering commitment to coalition building, grassroots advocacy, strategic planning, and policy development has earned her immense recognition and respect throughout California and nationally.
After co-founding the TMJ Society of California, a 501(c) 3 non-profit organization dedicated to bringing about changes in health care practices and laws to improve treatment for TMJ sufferers, she has helped shepherd many broad-based, first of-it’s-kind patient rights laws in California. Liz currently is the President/CEO of the California Chronic Care Coalition, an alliance of non-profit, social consumer and provider organizations united to improve the health of Californians with chronic conditions or diseases. Liz leads the National Stakeholders Specialty Medication Collaboratory, working to ensure access to affordable medications and advocates for the enforcement of anti-discrimination laws in the ACA. Liz was instrumental in bringing the clinical pharmacist on the care team to the Right Care Initiative which won her the Michelotti Public Health Prize from the CA Pharmacy Foundation. In addition to her CCCC leadership roles, Ms. Helms has been the catalyst within the chronic disease community working with the California administration’s health policy division on health care reform, including implementation of prevention, wellness and coordination of care. In 2013 she was elected to the board of directors to the California Healthcare Performance Information System (CHPI) representing California’s consumers and serves on many advisory committees including:
California Department of Public Health, Chronic Disease Division, Prevention 21, which includes: Comprehensive Medication Management, SALT, Healthy Hearts CA. Additionally, she is a member or advisor on CA Telehealth Coalition; UC Berkeley, School of Public Health – PCORI grant: “The Comparative Impact of Patient Activation and Engagement on Improving Patient-Centered Outcomes of Care in Accountable Care Organizations”, and is a member of the CA Right Care Initiative. Recently Liz was elected to a national AIMM board, (Alliance of Integrated Medication Management).