What do you know about the Oklahoma Health Care Authority? Did you know OHCA has an annual budget of approximately $4.3 billion dollars? That it serves over 825,000 Oklahomans? That it administers Oklahoma’s SoonerCare program?

      According to its website, the Oklahoma Health Care Authority is the primary agency in Oklahoma charged with controlling costs of state-purchased health care. OHCA balances this fiscal responsibility with two, equally important goals: 1. assuring that state-purchased health care meets acceptable standards of care; and 2. ensuring that Oklahomans who rely on state-purchased health care are served in a progressive and positive system.

      Mike Fogarty is OHCA’s Chief Executive Officer. He joined the agency in 1995 as the State Medicaid Director and Chief Operating Officer, and his been in his current position since 1999.

      Mike received his undergraduate education from Oklahoma Baptist University, a Master of Religious Education from Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, a Master of Social Work from the University of Oklahoma, and a Juris Doctorate from Oklahoma City University School of Law.

      He has worked in public service since 1971, when he became a social worker for the Oklahoma Department of Human Services. In 1979, he joined the legislative staff of Senator David Boren, where he was responsible for Senate Finance Committee matters relating to health, social services, and income assistance policy and programs. He returned to Oklahoma as the Deputy Director of the Department of Human Services, and in 1983 became the Medicaid Director. From 1987 to 1994 Mike maintained a private law practice and also owned and operated nursing facilities in Oklahoma.

      Nationally, Mike Fogarty is recognized as a leader in making health care work. He has put those skills to work in Oklahoma, leading other states to study and attempt to emulate what Oklahoma has done with its Medicaid program.

      Mike Fogarty regularly fulfills the Rotary motto of Service Above Self. The way he lives and works is a model of answering the questions of the Four-Way Test – Is it the TRUTH? Is it FAIR to All Concerned? Will it build GOODWILL and BETTER FRIENDSHIPS? Will it be BENEFICIAL to all concerned?

      Mike and his wife, Billie, live in Oklahoma City. Please welcome our special guest, Mike Fogarty, to the Rotary Club of Edmond.

Andy