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Senior Vice President, Office of Policy and Representation
Mary Nell Lehnhard is Senior Vice President, Office of Policy and Representation for the Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association (BCBSA), a national federation of 39 independent, community-based and locally operated Blue Cross and Blue Shield companies. The Blue System is the nation's largest health insurer covering 100 million people – one-in-three of all Americans. It is the largest single processor of Medicare claims in the nation, and holds the world’s largest privately underwritten health insurance contract – the 4.9-million-member Federal Employee Program (FEP).
Lehnhard oversees BCBSA lobbying and policy development activities related to representation before Congress and the Administration. She has nearly 25 years of leadership experience, representing BCBSA's Washington Office and Member Plans' policies to Congress, government agencies and other associations. Her background includes responsibility for BCBSA's issues on managed care, healthcare reform, financing and tax legislation. She has directed the activities related to the Association's role in Medicare, Medicaid and CHAMPUS.
Before joining BCBSA, Lehnhard worked as a Legislative Analyst for the Congressional Research Service, Library of Congress concentrating in the areas of food, drug and cosmetic regulation, drug economics, the federal health budget, and federal and state programs for mental health, alcoholism rehabilitation and drug abuse. She also was a professional staff member for the U.S. House of Representatives Subcommittee on Health, Committee on Ways and Means. Her responsibilities included policy development and legislation in areas of national health insurance, hospital cost containment and competition proposals.
Lehnhard is a member of the boards of the American Benefits Council and the Employee Benefits Research Institute.
She earned a Bachelor of Science degree from the University of Arkansas. | 
