HELENA - Sen. Max Baucus' top staffer on health reform, Liz Fowler, formerly worked for the nation's largest private health insurer.

That fact is prompting critics of his efforts to say it is another example of insurer influence on the Baucus health reform bill.

Baucus, a Montana Democrat, and his other staffers adamantly reject that suggestion, saying it is a cheap shot at one of the hardest-working and most talented employees of the U.S. Senate.

"To suggest Liz Fowler is driven by anything other than what's right for Montana and the country is unfair, untrue and inexcusable," said Ty Matsdorf, spokesman for Baucus.

Fowler is senior counsel to Baucus in his role as chairman of the Senate Finance Committee. She heads up a team of about 20 committee staffers working on Baucus' wide-ranging health bill, which has been a centerpiece of health reform action before Congress.

Fowler, an attorney who also has a doctorate in public health from Johns Hopkins University, was Baucus' top health care aide from 2001 to 2005 and left in 2006 to become an executive at WellPoint, the nation's largest private insurer.

WellPoint and its subsidiaries, which include several state Blue Cross plans that became for-profit companies, cover 35 million people.

Fowler rejoined Baucus and the Finance Committee in 2008 to work on health reform legislation. She also worked for the late Sen. Daniel Patrick Moynihan, D-N.Y., who formerly chaired the Finance Committee, and Rep. Pete Stark, D-Calif., often considered one of the most liberal members of Congress.

Baucus staffers say other members of the Finance Committee's health care staff are concentrating on health insurance issues, while Fowler coordinates the entire effort.

They say it is valuable having someone, like Fowler, with firsthand experience of the insurance industry because she has the knowledge to evaluate industry claims about effects of the legislation.