Dennis Rivera (born 1950) is an American consultant and former labor official and a "nationally recognized health care leader" who has been speaking about the issues in the United States healthcare system since 1992.

Early life

Born in

Aibonito, Puerto Rico Aibonito () is a small mountain town and municipality in Puerto Rico located in the Sierra de Cayey mountain range, north of Salinas; south of Barranquitas and Comerío; east of Coamo; and west of Cidra, and Cayey. Aibonito is spread over ...

, Rivera studied in

Cayey, Puerto Rico Cayey (), officially Cayey de Muesas, is a mountain Cayey barrio-pueblo, town and Municipalities of Puerto Rico, municipality in central Puerto Rico located on the Sierra de Cayey within the Cordillera Central (Puerto Rico), Central Mountain rang ...

. After graduating from the

University of Puerto Rico at Cayey The University of Puerto Rico at Cayey (UPR-Cayey) is a public university in Cayey, Puerto Rico. It is part of the University of Puerto Rico System. It was initially founded as a regional school in 1967 and became a college in 1969. It was award ...

he went on to organize and grow labor unions at hospitals in Puerto Rico and then in 1977 did the same in New York.

Career

He is the former chair of the healthcare division of the

Service Employees International Union Service Employees International Union (SEIU) is a labor union representing 2 million workers in over 100 occupations in the United States, Canada, and Puerto Rico. SEIU is focused on organizing workers in three sectors: healthcare (over half of m ...

and current Senior Adviser to the President of SEIU. Since as early as 1992 Rivera has spoken for a national healthcare system. In 1997, Rivera worked with the CEOs of New York hospitals and the governor of New York to improve service provided by New York hospitals. Rivera's views on the U.S. healthcare system is that there are structural problems. In 2016, Rivera spoke about the disparity in payments to doctors in Puerto Rico versus payments to doctors in states of the United States under the existing federal statutes. Rivera said that the current system of payments by the U.S. Federal government to the different health care systems in Puerto Rico is causing a crisis in Puerto Rico with doctors leaving the island, among other issues. A recognized expert on the healthcare system of the United States, Rivera participates in summits with others before congress. During the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...

, Rivera was a member of a commission put together by Governor Cuomo to improve telemedicine in New York. At that time, Rivera was also working with Cuomo on fixing the Medicaid payment system.

References

External links

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Partnership for Quality Care
{{DEFAULTSORT:Rivera, Dennis Living people 1950 births Activists from New York (state) Service Employees International Union people People from Aibonito, Puerto Rico Puerto Rican activists Vice presidents of the AFL-CIO