Dr Bergthold is a Research Associate at CHP/PCOR and a sociologist, directing a grant funded by The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation's Changes in Health Care Financing and Organization (HCFO) Initiative for the academic year 2000-2001. The grant, entitled "Understanding Medical Necessity Decision Making" is a national study of medical directors of managed care plans in 49 states and the District of Columbia. The research is a followup to a California study of the same topic carried out at Stanford in 1998-1999. Dr Bergthold comes to Stanford after 15 years of consulting with The Lewin Group and William M Mercer, Inc, and research at the University of California, San Francisco, Institute for Health & Aging. She was the Co-Chair of the Benefits Working Group for the White House Health Care Reform Task Force in 1993 and currently is the consumer representative on the Executive Committee of the Medicare Coverage Advisory Committee to HCFA.