The Sun learned this information while double-checking the spelling of names for a recent story about the board\u2019s historic decision to place a price cap on the rheumatoid arthritis drug Enbrel<\/a>.<\/p>\n Cathy Harshbarger, a former hospital CEO in Holyoke, now lists her home as Newcastle, Wyoming, on her LinkedIn profile<\/a>. Amy Gutierrez, a pharmacist who was formerly the vice president of pharmacy services for UCHealth, now lists Walnut Creek, California, as her home on LinkedIn<\/a>.<\/p>\n Genna Morton, a spokesperson for the Colorado Division of Insurance, which oversees the drug board, confirmed in an email that Harshbarger and Gutierrez have moved out of state. The board does not meet in person but instead meets virtually via Zoom.<\/p>\n \u201cThose two board members did notify staff that they were moving out of state,\u201d Morton said.<\/p>\n The detail could add to the scrutiny of the board, which is known as the PDAB and has been the subject of heavy lobbying. There has already been one<\/a> \u2014 unsuccessful<\/a> \u2014 legal challenge filed against its work, and the payment cap on Enbrel could bring another. Meanwhile, patient-advocacy organizations have questioned<\/a> whether the board\u2019s work will actually end up hurting the people who rely on the medicines the board is trying to make more affordable.<\/p>\n But it also seems unlikely that having two-fifths of the board\u2019s members based out of state will invalidate the board\u2019s work. Morton said there is nothing against the law about members of the drug board living outside of Colorado.<\/p>\n Colorado has nearly 300 boards and commissions<\/a>, whose members offer guidance and help set policy across just about every topic that the state government touches.<\/p>\n While some state government boards require board members to live in certain places \u2014 a particular congressional district, for instance \u2014 or to hold a specific job in Colorado, the statute that created the PDAB contains no such restrictions.<\/p>\n Instead, the law<\/a> says only that board members \u201cmust each have an advanced degree and experience or expertise in health-care economics or clinical medicine.\u201d The law also prohibits people affiliated with pharmaceutical manufacturers, insurance companies or pharmacy benefit managers from serving on the board.<\/p>\n The governor appoints all of the board\u2019s members, who must then be confirmed by the state Senate. Board members are volunteers and are not compensated for their work.<\/p>\n \u201cWe know that life circumstances can change,\u201d Morton wrote in her email. \u201cThere is no requirement that prevents a board member from moving out of state.\u201d<\/p>\n Gutierrez and Harshbarger were living in Colorado when they were initially appointed<\/a> to the drug board in 2021. They were reappointed to their seats in September 2023.<\/p>\n Gutierrez was still living in Colorado at that time and did not move to California until earlier this year, when she wrote on LinkedIn<\/a> that she had accepted a job as the chief pharmacy officer for John Muir Health in the San Francisco Bay area.<\/p>\n The executive order<\/a> reappointing Harshbarger in September 2023 listed her hometown as Holyoke. But an article in the News Letter Journal<\/a>, a newspaper in Weston County, Wyoming, reported that Harshbarger had moved to the county in May 2023 to help care for her ailing mother-in-law. The article said Harshbarger then moved to Newcastle, the county seat, in August 2023.<\/p>\n She has since been named the interim CEO at the hospital in Newcastle.<\/p>\n Harshbarger appeared remotely for her reappointment confirmation hearing in March 2024 and was introduced by a Division of Insurance staffer as \u201cthe former CEO of Melissa Memorial Hospital,\u201d which is the hospital in Holyoke.<\/p>\n \u201cMs. Harshbarger has an acute awareness of the needs and barriers facing rural Coloradans and is skilled at recommending more affordable therapeutic alternatives,\u201d the staffer, deputy insurance commissioner Lila Cummings, said.<\/p>\n Neither Cummings nor Harshbarger mentioned during the hearing whether Harshbarger was living in Colorado or Wyoming. Both Harshbarger\u2019s and Gutierrez\u2019s reappointments were advanced unanimously at the hearing.<\/p>\n Morton, the Division of Insurance spokesperson, said division staff felt it was important for Harshbarger and Gutierrez to continue serving on the board after leaving Colorado because of the nature of the board\u2019s work. It is both extremely complicated and methodical, with the current members having spent years developing policies and engaging in analyses to prepare for setting their first cap, which is known formally as an upper payment limit.<\/p>\n \u201cAll board members have to-date served for four years, and board members were selected who had various expertise and experiences across Colorado to provide comprehensive insights,\u201d Morton wrote. \u201cBecause of the nature, complexity, and sequenced aspect of this work, continuity of board members and their expertise is extremely important and leads to the best outcomes.\u201d<\/p>\n Type of Story: News<\/p>\n Based on facts, either observed and verified directly by the reporter, or reported and verified from knowledgeable sources.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The home addresses of 40% of the members of a groundbreaking prescription drug price-capping board raise a surprising…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":242988,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[59],"tags":[95424,133443,97,252,253,123608,123609,2824],"class_list":["post-242987","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-health-care","tag-colorado-division-of-insurance","tag-division-of-insurance","tag-health","tag-health-care","tag-healthcare","tag-prescription-drug-affordability-board","tag-prescription-drug-costs","tag-prescription-drugs"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/242987","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=242987"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/242987\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/242988"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=242987"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=242987"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=242987"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"Pills](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/1761118819_122_AP18040607756340.jpg\")
In this Friday, July 8, 2016, file photo, a pharmacy technician fills a prescription at a pharmacy, in Sacramento, Calif. (AP Photo\/Rich Pedroncelli, File)<\/p>\n