Douglas Hammer
Adjunct Instructor
Master of Healthcare Administration
Adjunct Instructor, Faculty
Doug Hammer serves as Senior Vice President and General Counsel and has been responsible for the organization and management of legal and government relations services at Intermountain Healthcare, Inc. in Salt Lake City, Utah for over 40 years. Intermountain operates 23 hospitals, over 240 clinics, employs over 40,000 including over 1,600 physicians in its physician medical group and hospitals, serves over 900,000 members through its health insurance plans – SelectHealth, and generates over $9 billion in revenue annually. Intermountain is the largest private employer in Utah. Mr. Hammer focuses his practice on corporate law, integrated delivery systems, complex transactions, antitrust, tax, and health policy. He manages a team of 35 professionals.
He is an Adjunct Professor at the University of Utah – School of Medicine in the Department of Family and Preventive Medicine and, since 1978 has taught courses in health care organization, issues in law and medicine, health policy and managed care, and public health policy and administration. He is an Adjunct Professor in the David Eccles School of Business and teaches Health Law in the MHA program. He also taught Health Law as an Adjunct Professor at the Brigham Young University Marriott Graduate School of Management from 1978 – 1989. In his honor, in 2004, the University of Utah established the “Douglas J. Hammer Distinguished Endowed Lectureship in Public Health.”
Mr. Hammer received his Bachelor of Science degree in 1970 from the University of Utah and Juris Doctor from the University of Utah in 1977 with an emphasis in health services research. He also obtained his Master of Public Health degree from the University of Michigan in 1972. As an undergraduate at the University of Utah, he earned three varsity letters for the Utah track team throwing the shot put, discus, and javelin.
He is married to the former Karren Kelly. They have four children and ten grandchildren.
Mr. Hammer served on the Board of Directors of the America Health Lawyers Association (AHLA) (1995-2001), including AHLA’s Executive and Finance Committees, served as Chairman of AHLA’s In-House Counsel Committee (1994-1996), and, for six years (1996-2002), served as Program Chairman for AHLA’s Fundamentals of Health Care Law program held annually in Chicago. In 2005, he was named an AHLA Charter Fellow, one of only 35 health lawyers nationally among the 13,000 plus members of AHLA. He currently serves on the Editorial Board of the Journal of Health Law and Life Sciences and is a member of Delta Omega, the national health honor society.