McNerney, Walter J.

In his 45-year career, Walter J. McNerney (1925–2005) had a profound impact on the nation's healthcare system. McNerney played a pivotal role in the creation of the federal Medicare program, he was a leading educator in hospital administration, and he was the president of the national Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association. Born in 1925 in New Haven, Connecticut, McNerney earned a bachelor's degree in industrial administration from Yale University in 1947. After graduation, he taught advanced mathematics at the Hopkins School, a private college-preparatory school in New Haven. He left New Haven to attend the University of Minnesota, where he earned a master's degree in hospital administration in 1950. Over the next several years, he held various administrative positions in hospitals in Providence, Rhode Island, and Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

McNerney joined the faculty of the University of Michigan in 1955, where he founded and headed the university's hospital administration program in the School of Business. While at the university, he developed the program's curriculum, taught hundreds of students, and conducted one of the largest, most comprehensive research projects ever undertaken in healthcare. The landmark project detailed the availability, use, quality, finance, and politics of healthcare across the state of Michigan. The results of the project were published in Hospital and Medical Economics, a massive two-volume set.

In 1961, McNerney left the University of Michigan to become the president of the national Blue Cross Association. As president, he oversaw the merger with the Blue Shield Association and the subsequent creation of the national Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association. McNerney was instrumental in getting the independent Blue Cross and Blue Shield plans to offer health maintenance organizations (HMOs) and managed-care plans, because he thought that the implementation of managed care was inevitable.

In 1963, he founded the journal Inquiry. Today, Inquiry is one of the top three peer-reviewed scholarly publications in the field of health services research.

McNerney was a leading advisor to President Lyndon B. Johnson. In partnership with the administration's Wilbur J. Cohen, he developed the blueprint for the Medicare program that, together with Medicaid, was signed into law in 1965. Under President Richard M. Nixon, McNerney also served as chairman of the task force on Medicaid. The panel's final report called for an overhaul of the federal-state apportionment of costs and responsibilities, issues that remain contentious to this day.

After retiring from the Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association in 1981, McNerney went back to academe, becoming the Herman Smith Professor of Health Policy at the Kellogg School of Business at Northwestern University. While teaching at the university, he continued to consult with numerous organizations. He retired in 1998 after suffering a stroke. In 2005, McNerney died at his Winnetka, Illinois home, at the age of 80.

During his long and illustrious career at the University of Michigan, the Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association, and Northwestern University, McNerney mentored hundreds of students as well as junior and senior managers. He served on numerous government and private-sector committees and advisory bodies. He frequently testified before various congressional committees. He worked tirelessly with community organizations and charitable foundations. He wrote 3 books and more than 75 articles on various aspects of healthcare. His areas of expertise included healthcare insurance, management, financing, education, leadership, philanthropy, strategy, and policy. Because of his large number of areas of expertise and wide general knowledge, many considered McNerney a 20th-century Renaissance man.

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