Featured FAN: Bill Walker, MD

Featured FAN: A conversation with Bill Walker, MD

Each quarter, we feature a Federal Action Network (FAN) member leading the charge on Capitol Hill to protect essential hospitals.

This quarter, we spoke with Bill Walker, MD, director of legislative and governmental relations at association member Contra Costa Health Services (CCHS), in Martinez, Calif., about how to effectively educate lawmakers and the importance of political action committees (PACs) to support advocacy.

You’ve served at CCHS for more than 50 years, starting as a staff physician in 1974 and now serving as director of legislative and governmental relations. What has kept you at CCHS, and how has your experience across various roles shaped the way you advocate today?

I have stayed at CCHS for over 50 years for a variety of reasons. I joined in 1974 intending to stay a few years and then work abroad. In my first assignment working in a one room rural clinic with bedsheets for exam room walls, I learned that there are health needs in California equal to those abroad, so I stayed. CCHS is a family medicine-based system with a historical emphasis on primary care in an integrated setting. Working here has always felt like family to me and still does. Our watchword has always been, “The patient comes first!,” and “Do the common things uncommonly well!” This is why I stayed and emphasized these values in my advocacy roles as health plan medical director, health officer, and health director. 

As we move out of the recent government shutdown and into the second session of the 119th Congress, what feels unique about this moment on Capitol Hill? Where are you focusing your advocacy efforts right now?

This moment on Capitol Hill is unlike any other that I have been through. So many of our funding streams are at risk, making this catastrophic for [us] and many other [essential hospital] systems. Our advocacy efforts are focused on this message and the impacts on our community.

What advice do you have for advocates at our member hospitals on effectively educating lawmakers and their staff about complex health care issues, particularly amid recent challenges to Medicaid?

My advice is to be specific with our lawmakers about how each piece of our funding streams is being impacted, what they can do about it, and, more importantly, what the ultimate effect will be on our communities. Our system is overwhelmingly dependent on Medicaid and will be impacted by reductions in hospital funding and managed care enrollment, increased uncompensated care, and reductions in funding for behavioral health and public health. 

Which health care issues are you most passionate about? And looking back, what work or accomplishments in that space are you particularly proud to have been part of?

I am most passionate about moving the entire U.S. health care model to provide health care for all.  We came much closer with the Affordable Care Act but still with a long way to go. California in particular took full advantage of it. Now even that is being threatened. I am also passionate about the more recent emphasis on addressing the social determinants of health, especially housing, food access, and behavioral health. I am proud of the work that CCHS has done in that space in our integrated system of inpatient care, ambulatory care, behavioral health, public health, and managed care through our Contra Costa Health Plan.

You have a long history with the association, from serving as association board chair in 2014 to becoming the inaugural Essential Hospitals PAC board chair in 2016. What has been most meaningful about your continued involvement as FAN member and PAC supporter? How have you seen the PAC evolve as an advocacy tool over the years?

CCHS has thrived through our collaboration and reliance on America’s Essential Hospitals and the California Association of Public Hospitals and Health Systems. Without these efforts for adequate funding at the federal and state level we would never have survived. In addition, the training resources for our leaders has been crucial. The formation of a PAC in 2016 recognized the value of being able to access crucial lawmakers at crucial times in our advocacy efforts, advocacy that can often be easier with a donation! The PAC is especially important now. 

What’s something we wouldn’t know about you just by looking at your resume?

Not on my resume is my nearly lifelong addiction to opera in San Francisco, across the nation, and internationally. My daughter and I are especially fans of the Wagner Ring Cycle and will do our next one in Milan at La Scala in March 2026.