Health plan head's degree questioned

N.C. Policy Watch blogger Adam Linker is questioning the doctoral degree that Jack Walker, the State Health Plan executive administrator, received from a now-defunct private California institution.

Walker claims a Ph.D. in Administration and Management from Columbia Pacific University, near San Francisco, Dan Kane reports.

The for-profit correspondence school went out of business in 2000 after more than 20 years of operation. Walker said he received his degree in 1992.

The school was never accredited by any national or regional institution, and in 1997, a California deputy attorney general called it a diploma mill as part of a complaint to shut it down.

In a post on the Progressive Pulse group blog, Linker said the state deserves better than having someone with a "fake degree" running the health plan serving 667,000 employees, teachers and retirees.

Walker said in an interview that his degree is legitimate. Joanne Wenzel of California's consumer affairs department said the state gave approval to degrees the school issued from 1978 to 1997.

He said his dissertation on health care administration was strong enough to be published by the University of Michigan. The university could not immediately confirm that information on Monday.

Walker served as the state health plan's administrator from 1999 to 2005. He became interim administrator last year after the legislative leaders in charge of the plan fired George Stokes.

Walker makes $200,000 a year as the interim administrator, $32,000 more than his predecessor.