Ann Torregrossa
Ann Torregrossa has over 39 years experience in health policy and Medicaid law. She is Director of Pennsylvania Governor’s Office of Health Care Reform (GOHCR), where she helped develop Governor Rendell’s comprehensive health care reform initiative, Prescription for Pennsylvania. She is responsible for coordinating health policy among the state agencies that provide health care coverage or services and for implementing Governor Rendell’s health reform plan. Prior to her current position, Ann was Deputy Director and Director of Policy for GOHCR. Before joining the Rendell Administration Ann was a co-founder and the Director of a public interest law firm that provided free assistance to consumers facing difficulties obtaining needed publicly funded health care. This program would not only try to address the individual consumer’s issue, but would advocate to address the underlying policy issues that led to the individual problem.
Ann has been an adjunct professor at the University of Pennsylvania School of Law, where she taught an interdisciplinary graduate course on Publicly Funded Health Law and at Villanova Law School, where she taught Poverty Law.
Ann has a J.D. from Villanova Law School and has completed her course work for a M.L.A. from the University of Pennsylvania.
For individuals living with complex, often chronic conditions, and their families, palliative care can provide relief from symptoms, improve satisfaction and outcomes, and help address critical mental and spiritual needs during difficult times. Now more than ever, there is growing recognition of the importance of palliative care services for individuals with serious illness, such as advance care planning, pain and symptom management, care coordination, and team-based, multi-disciplinary support. These services can help patients and families cope with the symptoms and stressors of disease, better anticipate and avoid crises, and reduce unnecessary and/or unwanted care. While this model is grounded in evidence that demonstrates improved quality of life, better outcomes, and reduced cost for patients, only a fraction of individuals who could benefit from palliative care receive it. 
