15 hospital, health system population health administrators to know

As the healthcare environment changes, so must the leadership teams of provider organizations. The rise of population health management has led many health systems to add new population health administrators.

Here are 15 population health administrators to know at hospitals and health systems throughout the United States, presented alphabetically.

Note: Population health administrators were selected based on editorial judgment and discretion. Individuals did not pay for inclusion on this list.

Charles H. Chodroff, MD, Senior Vice President of Population Health and Chief Clinical Officer, WellSpan Health (York, Pa.). Dr. Chodroff has a long history with WellSpan. From 1987 to 1991, he was medical director of the York Hospital outpatient clinics. In 2013, he was named senior vice president of population health and chief clinical officer. Dr. Chodroff has multiple duties — he not only leads WellSpan's clinical quality and care management activities, but also develops and implements the system's population health strategy.

Robert A. Greene, MD, Executive Vice President and Chief Population Health Management Officer, Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center (Lebanon, N.H.).  Dr. Greene is relatively new to Dartmouth-Hitchcock, joining the system in 2014. In his role, he oversees operations for population health management and accountable care organization work across the hospital. His job includes developing and implementing strategies to be successful under population-based reimbursement models, and being involved in employee wellness and population health initiatives. Prior to joining Dartmouth-Hitchcock, Dr. Greene was senior vice president for innovation and applied analytics for Minnetonka, Minn.-based UnitedHealthcare. In this role, he led the clinical analytics division of UHC.

Jean Haynes, Chief Population Health Officer, University of Colorado Health (Aurora). Ms. Haynes has approximately 25 years of experience in healthcare management and finance with large integrated systems. She started out as a critical care and emergency medicine nurse at St. Francis Medical Center in Peoria, Ill. She also previously was president and CEO of Geisinger Health Plan, executive vice president of insurance operations for Danville, Pa.-based Geisinger Health System and director of quality management at Humana Hospital in St. Petersburg, Fla. Prior to joining UCHealth, Ms. Haynes was president and CEO of Univita Health in Eden Prairie, Minn.

Jonathan Jaffery, MD, Chief Population Health Officer, The University of Wisconsin Health (Madison). At UW Health, Dr. Jaffery, a board-certified nephrologist, is responsible for the overall development, coordination and implementation of the population health management strategy. Specifically, he works with payers and community partners and redesigns methods of payment that promote healthcare's triple aim. He completed a Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Health Policy fellowship, served on the U.S. Senate Committee on Finance and is a former CMO for the Wisconsin State Medicaid program.

Navneet Kathuria, MD, Vice President of Population Health, Meridian Health (Neptune, N.J.). At Meridian Health, Dr. Kathuria not only leads the population health programs for the system, but also the system's ACO. Before joining Meridian, he was the chief performance improvement officer for Baylor College of Medicine in Dallas. Dr. Kathuria was also the principal leader in the establishment of the Center of Globalization for Baylor College Medicine. Prior to Baylor, Dr. Kathuria was vice chairman of medicine for quality and deputy CMO at The Mount Sinai Medical Center in New York City. He also served as chief quality and clinical integration officer for Armonk, N.Y.-based Stellaris Health.

Nancy Lane, PhD, Senior Vice President for Population Health Management, Vanderbilt University Medical Center (Nashville, Tenn.). Dr. Lane, a licensed psychologist, oversees the creation of systems and programs necessary to successfully manage the quality and cost of delivering healthcare under population-based reimbursement models. Prior to joining Vanderbilt, she worked for 18 years with ValueOptions. Most recently, she was CEO of the company's Massachusetts Behavioral Health Partnership, which manages publicly funded mental health, substance abuse and integrated care management services for more than 400,000 members throughout Massachusetts. Her accomplishments at MBHP included efforts to successfully win a CMS innovation grant.

Richard T. Lopes, MD, Executive Vice President and Chief Population Health Officer, SCL Health (Denver). Dr. Lopes rejoined SCL Health in May 2011 as senior vice president of SCL Health PSO (formerly Health Networks) before his promotion to his current position, in which he oversees the organization and management of SCL Health's healthcare delivery system. Previously, he was in a leadership role and on SCL Health's board from 2004 through 2010. Prior to joining SCL Health in 2004, he was vice president of medical operations for two of Denver-based Catholic Health Initiatives' regions. Dr. Lopes also previously took on a number of positions with San Francisco-based Catholic Healthcare West, which changed its name to Dignity Health in 2012.

Rhonda M. Medows, MD, Executive Vice President of Population Health, Providence Health & Services (Renton, Wash.).  Dr. Medows joined Providence in May 2015, where she oversees the Providence Health Plan, ACOs, payer strategy and contracting, physician services and the affiliated Pacific Medical Group. Before taking on her current role, she was executive vice president and CMO of UnitedHealth Group. She also has previous experience as commissioner for the Georgia Department of Community Health and as the state health officer for Georgia. Dr. Medows also served under former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush (R) as secretary of the Florida Agency for Health Care Administration, the state agency responsible for the Medicaid programs, health facility regulation, managed care quality, health information exchange and public policy development. Additionally, she was previously CMO for the CMS Southeast region.

Sandy Melzer, MD, Executive Vice President for Networks and Population Health, Seattle Children's. At Seattle Children's, Dr. Melzer works with other leaders to position Seattle Children's as the preferred pediatric provider in all ACOs. His work includes developing systems that facilitate coordinated care between Seattle Children's specialists, primary care physicians and other community providers. Prior to his current role, he served as senior vice president and chief strategy officer at Seattle Children's.

Peter Roberts, Executive Vice President for Population Health and Business Development, Children's Health System of Texas (Dallas).  Mr. Roberts joined Children's in 2011 and has been a key player in the development of a pediatric value-based business model, including an HMO financing vehicle, a provider-led ACO, adult health system affiliations, data and analytics core and a comprehensive population health management support system. Mr. Roberts led the conceptualization and development of The Health and Wellness Alliance for Children, as well as the establishment of adult health system affiliations with Children's Medical Center across the Dallas and Fort Worth areas. He is responsible for all functions related to population health, managed care, ACO laws/regulations, physician networks, physician corporations, external organization affiliations and recruiting, primary care strategy, disease management and corporate planning.

Bert Scott, Senior Vice President of Population Health, Novant Health (Winston-Salem, N.C.). In his role at Novant Health, Mr. Scott collaborates with other leaders to integrate population health across Novant Health. Prior to Novant Health, he was president and CEO of Affinity Health Plan, a consumer-driven health plan organization in New York. Previously, he was president of U.S. commercial markets for Cigna and executive vice president and chief development officer at TIAA-CREF, a financial services organization. During his 10 years with TIAA-CREF, he also served as executive vice president of strategy, integration and planning where he was responsible for leading the development and implementation of company strategy and all merger and acquisition activities.

Joel J. Shu, MD, Vice President of Clinical Transformation and Population Health, Catholic Health Services (Rockville Centre, N.Y.). Dr. Shu is the first person to step into this role at CHS. Before joining CHS, he was at Jersey City (N.J.) Medical Center, where he was in roles that included chairman of the medical staff peer review, director of the EMR implementation, director of continuing medical education and project director of an ACO. During his tenure at JCMC, he instituted clinical practice changes within the ACO there to improve various aspects, such as bundled payment care, an inpatient pain and symptom management program, an outpatient cancer rehabilitation program and patient satisfaction.

Mark Sparta, Executive Vice President and Chief Population Health Officer, Hackensack (N.J.) University Health Network. In his position, Mr. Sparta leads the development of HackensackUHN's population health program and accountable care services. He facilitates strong partnerships internally with the HackensackAlliance ACO leadership and the medical executive community as well as with external community health agencies, nursing home facilities and other entities. Prior to his current position, which he took over in May, he was HackensackUHN's vice president of clinical services and senior operations officer for eight years. He left that position in November 2014 to serve as acting CEO of HackensackUMC at Pascack Valley.

Barbara A. Walters, DO, Executive Vice President and Chief Population Health Officer, Trinity Health (Livonia, Mich.). Dr. Walters joined Trinity Health from Dartmouth-Hitchcock in New Hampshire, where she was executive medical director. She was involved in Dartmouth-Hitchcock's population health management work and also led the development of the Dartmouth-Hitchcock Pioneer ACO, as well as a three-state Medicare Shared Savings Program ACOs. Currently, Dr. Walters is responsible for Trinity Health's physician network operations, and for continuing the development and implementation of the strategic initiatives that will play a role in how the organization approaches population health management. She is also a key system representative and spokeswoman with external stakeholders (payer relationships, governmental advocacy and public health policy) for population health activities.

Stacey Youcis, Senior Vice President of Service Lines and Population Health, Lancaster (Pa.) General Health. Ms. Youcis has a clinical background in radiology, cardiology and emergency medicine. In her current role, she works closely with executive and physician leaders to provide vision, leadership and operational oversight of LG Health's seven major service lines. She is accountable for each of the service lines' financial performance, operational efficiency and quality improvement to meet targeted clinical and operating outcomes. Before taking on her current role, she was vice president of operations at Lancaster (Pa.) General Hospital.