Andy Slavitt, former CMS Administrator, has been named as a senior advisor at Chicago-based AVIA, a network that aims to help health systems seeking to innovate and transform.
Slavitt, who ran the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) from March 2015 until January 2017 as an Obama administration appointee, has more than two decades of private and public sector leadership in healthcare and technology. At CMS, he was most well-known for the implementation of the Affordable Care Act’s (ACA) health insurance marketplace, and also leading the shift to pay-for-performance through the enactment of the Medicare Access and CHIP Reauthorization Act (MACRA).
Towards the end of his time in government, Slavitt became impassioned with redesigning federal regulations so that doctors would be less burdened. Last year at a healthcare conference, he famously said, “We have to get the hearts and minds of physicians back. I think we’ve lost them.”
As such, Slavitt joins AVIA at a “vital time for health system transformation,” according to an announcement. “AVIA’s growing network of more than 20 health systems is accelerating the way to better, more coordinated care through proven technology. At the same time, health systems have a pressing imperative to find sustainable solutions while facing increased uncertainty and consumer demand,” officials said.
A core idea behind the AVIA Innovator Network is to help members solve pressing challenges with digital solutions that deliver financial and clinical results, and now Slavitt is being tapped to help provider organizations do just that. Prior to leading CMS, Slavitt served as the group executive vice president for Optum, which he grew to a $40 billion health services enterprise. Additionally, Slavitt founded and served as CEO of HealthAllies, a venture-backed Internet-based consumer healthcare marketplace.
“We’re thrilled to have Andy on our team,” AVIA CEO and co-founder, Eric Langshur, said in a statement. “AVIA and its network are propelling the healthcare industry forward through collaboration and on-the-ground care transformation at scale. Andy brings unparalleled experience and insight at a time when leadership and innovation in healthcare have never been more important.”
Slavitt himself said in a prepared statement, “One of the principal areas I will focus on is what major healthcare organizations need to do differently for our country to succeed in transforming patient care. We have small scale innovation all over, but until physicians, patients, and systems can absorb and benefit at scale, our healthcare system will remain stalled. I found AVIA to have one of the highest impact approaches to transformation and am pleased to be a part of this important effort.”
