Rose Maljanian
Chairman & CEO, HealthCAWS
Chairman of the Board, Population Health Alliance
On October 11th a national and diverse group of healthcare leaders were convened in Washington DC by the Population Health Alliance (PHA), the industry’s only professional and trade association solely focused on population health management (PHM). The event aimed to showcase advancing PHM innovations amidst a bipartisan policy backdrop, and that it delivered and then some.
There is no bigger focus today than population health management especially when you consider the contents of the PHM broad umbrella. And yes, that umbrella includes value- based care with financial incentives as a lever and precision medicine where advancements in science allow us to expand on the ability to provide individualized interventions.
The mainstay features of the PHA PHM Framework have been and continue to be enduring:
- Upfront Analytics to define populations, identify and risk stratify individuals for triage to the best interventions,
- Consumer focused Interventions that span the continuum from Wellness to End of Life and are multifaceted, from High Tech to High Touch, and an
- Outcomes Focus – measuring and delivering value – improved quality, experience of care and cost savings.
Following a review of the PHA PHM framework and industry trends, Tom Scully, former CMS administrator, joined me to deliver his remarks and then share his personal experiences in government and as an industry leading entrepreneur and investor with WCAS. Tom skillfully boiled down his many points of wisdom to what has consistently worked overtime and across markets-risk and accountability.
Don Wright took the stage to take us into the future with an overview of Healthy People 2030. He emphasized creating a discreet set of actionable objectives to align and mobilize the nation’s vast healthcare work force across all business segments. A unique panel on a nationally gripping topic-the Opioid epidemic- was moderated by Jaan Sidorov joined by Andrey Ostrovsky and Denee Choice. The team like others addressed the problem but uniquely focused more on addressing the root cause- pain management-with smart medication assisted therapy and alternative therapies to treat pain.
Mary Jane Osmick who lead PHA’s substantive work on Social Determinants of Health over the last eighteen months, convened a panel including Helene Forte, Jaan Sidorov, Elise Bowman and David Johnson showcased a multifaceted strategy aimed at taking action on SDH levers. The robust panel presentations and discussion included the overlay of SDH to the PHA Population Health Framework and concluded with recognition that addressing SDH is everyone’s job and the importance of integrating strategies to avoid gaps as well as duplication of efforts while maximizing results.
The Innovation panel moderated by Sandeep Wadwha of Solera Health including former CMS Innovation Center leader Jay Desai, Merck’s Gauvav Lal and Anil Jain from IBM did not disappoint. The team emphasized driving insights to the point of care and aligning innovation goals with company core business goals to maximize success for all.
Just when it seemed that we couldn’t create more energy in the room, Anne Marie Polak of Leavitt Partner’s gave a thought provoking state of union luncheon keynote including predictions about ACA direction pending various potential outcomes of November’s midterms. Anne Marie closed with welcomed bipartisan support for Innovation and new opportunity to advance demonstrations through CMMI.
The last session of the day was moderated by Ray Fabius beginning with a video clip greeting from Dan Buettner recorded between international flights earlier in the week highlighting sense of purpose and making the right health choices, the easy choice from his groundbreaking work on Blue Zones. Ray continued with important research documenting companies with healthier people, achieve healthier business targets. He was then joined by Mary Ann Cooney to provide insights on population health management strategies at the State and territorial level where the importance of partnerships and robust tactics were emphasized.
In addition to the tremendous content delivered by these high caliber speakers, the vibrant room with colleagues networking to share ideas and plan follow-up meetings was simply not to be missed. As I closed the meeting I reflected on the above and shared this final thought; “When you think about Population Health Management, let us recognize that PHA has built a tremendous foundation over the past 20 years, has assembled a committed and talented pool of thought leaders with execution expertise, and is well poised to create that future healthcare state- delivering value every day to those that matter most- our patients, members and consumers.”
Join us today to advance your company’s presence and contribution to the industry!
Rose Maljanian
Chairman of the Board PHA
Chairman & CEO HealthCAWS
Ms. Polak is a senior director based in Washington, D.C. In her role, she provides policy counsel and analysis to clients with matters involving regu-lations, legislation, and business implications. Anne Marie’s experience includes developing strategic messages and policy positions for Capitol Hill, administration, trade associations, and corporate audiences. Prior to joining Leavitt Partners, Anne Marie was a vice president for Faegre BD Consulting in the firm’s health and biosciences group. She also spent five years with the Podesta Group in Washington, D.C., while completing her law degree in the evenings at the George Mason University School of Law, graduating cum laude in 2010. Anne Marie also worked in the government and legal affairs office of Novo Nordisk in Washington, D.C., and as a congressional aide to Rep. Michael Ferguson of New Jersey.
Dr. Fabius has recently returned to his start up. HealthNEXT, a company dedicated to the development of organizational cultures of health — after serving as Chief Medical Officer of Truven Health Analytics (formerly the healthcare business of Thomson Reuters), the world’s leading source of intelligent information for business and professionals. In this capacity he is charged with developing and deepening relationships with customers, advising on product development, and providing counsel to the leadership on business strategy and medical issues. Formerly, Dr. Fabius served as strategic advisor to the President of Walgreens Health & Wellness Division. This organization will coordinate over 1,000 workplace health centers and 10,000 pharmacies, many with retail clinics, into a seamless primary care network across the country within the next five years. In the not too distant future, it will be possible to offer large employers medical and fitness services on-site as well as episodic illness care, health coaching and disease management monitoring at the employee’s nearest Walgreens pharmacy.
Mr. Buettner is an explorer, National Geographic Fellow, award-winning journalist and producer, and a New York Timesbestselling author. He discovered the five places in the world—dubbed Blue Zones—where people live the longest, healthiest lives. His articles about these places in The New York Times Magazine and National Geographic are two of the most popular for both publications.
Ms. Cooney provides strategic direction for the Centers three Pillars of Population Health – Clinical to Community Connections, Health Equity and the Social Determinants of Health, and Public Health Data Analytics and Informatics. Mary Ann previously worked for 14 years at the New Hampshire Department of Health and Human Services where she was Deputy Commissioner for the Department and Director of Public Health.
Mr. Scully is a General Partner in the Healthcare Group, having joined WCAS in 2004. Before joining WCAS, he was the Administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) for three years and the President and CEO of the Federation of American Hospitals for six years. He also served as the Deputy Assistant to the President and as the Associate Director of OMB under President GHW Bush from 1989 to 1993, and has practiced law at Alston and Bird; Patton Boggs; and Akin, Gump, Strauss Hauer and Feld. He is a Principal at the Lincoln Policy Group.
Dr. Don Wright has served as the Deputy Assistant Secretary for Health and Director of the Office of Disease Prevention and Health Promotion (ODPHP) since January 2012. In this capacity, he leads coordination and policy development for public health and prevention activities within the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Health, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. He is also currently the acting Executive Director of the President’s Council on Fitness, Sports & Nutrition.
Dr. Sidorov is a board-certified in general internal medicine physician with more than 25 years of experience in primary care, inpatient care, medical education and evidence-based practice. Jaan believes physician leadership throughout the continuum of care is the bedrock of value-based care delivery. He received his medical degree from Pennsylvania State University College of Medicine, and completed his internship and residency at the Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center in Hanover, New Hampshire. Jaan also served as a Chief Resident at Reading Hospital in Reading, Pennsylvania.
Dr. Ostrovsky is a practicing physician, social entrepreneur, and health policy expert who specializes in human-centered design, lean manage-ment, quality improvement, population health, and digital health. Dr. Ostrovsky was most recently the Chief Medical Officer for the Center for Medicaid and CHIP Services (CMCS), the nation’s largest insurer covering over 74 million people, annually.
Dr. Choice is vice president and medical director for physical medicine services at American Specialty Health (ASH). Dr. Choice oversees the Rehabilitation Services Clinical Quality Evaluation program and leads the content development, training and clinical quality processes for ASH’s musculoskeletal health and pain management products.
Ms. Forte is responsible for leading Tufts Health Public Plans expansion efforts. Prior to her current position, she was vice president of care management for all Public Plans members.
As Director of Strategic Initiatives, Ms. Bowman oversees new social needs intervention initiatives among our clinical partners — including program design, resource database build-outs, and integration of Health Leads’ signature technology, Reach. Elise brings 10 years of direct service experience to her role, having previously served as a Health Leads program manager, a case manager for adults struggling with mental illness and homelessness, and in developing parent engagement initiatives in public education settings.
Mr. Johnson leads the Sage Consulting’s work for a number of public sector, corporate, non-profit and multi-employer clients. David brings particular expertise in evidence-based workplace wellness programs and leveraging Behavioral Economics principles in Human Resources Management. He is also an Adjunct Professor in the Department of Psychology at Towson University.
Dr. Wadhwa is a leader in building population health programs for vulnerable populations. He serves as the senior vice president of market innovation and is the chief health officer for Solera Health where he is focused on scaling the Diabetes Prevention Program as well as health-related, social support interventions. Previously, Sandeep held population health leadership positions with 3M and McKesson. He also served as the State Medicaid Director for Colorado under its former Governor. While there, he oversaw a $4 billion program and led the effort to implement an accountable care collaborative. Sandeep also serves on the board of Reinvestment Fund, a $1 billion non-profit, financial institute devoted to revitalizing low-income neighborhoods. Sandeep continues to see patients at the Seniors Clinic at the University of Colorado Hospital where he serves as associate clinical professor in the division of Geriatric Medicine.
Focused on the intersection of information technology, informatics, clinical medicine and innovation, Dr. Jain is VP and Chief Health Informatics Officer at IBM Watson Health. He was Co-Founder, Senior VP and Chief Medical Officer of Explorys, Inc. formed in 2009 based on innovations that he developed while at the Cleveland Clinic. In April 2015, Explorys was acquired by IBM as an integral component of the newly formed Watson Health business unit. In 2017, he was appointed by Congress to the Federal Health IT Advisory Committee established by the 21st Century Cures Act.
Ms. Maljanian is an accomplished senior executive with more than 25 years of experience in the health care industry. Rose’s leadership experience
John Haughton MD, MS