Aetna Appoints Charles Kennedy, M.D., to Head Aligned Care Solutions
July 20 2011 - 11:30AM
Business Wire
Aetna (NYSE: AET) today announced the appointment of Charles
Kennedy, M.D., to the new position of head of Aetna Aligned Care
Solutions. Dr. Kennedy will lead this business segment focused on
collaborating with high quality health systems to make the
transformational changes needed in health care – changes that lead
to higher quality, greater coordination, and an overall better
patient health care experience.
“Patient-centered, collaborative care models are an important
component of Aetna’s vision for a more connected and effective
health care system,” said Charles E. Saunders, M.D., head of
Strategic Diversification for Aetna. “Charles’ experience as a
physician and leader in health information technology, together
with Aetna’s extensive assets and capabilities, puts us in a unique
position to help provider organizations transform patient care,”
Saunders said.
Aetna is working with health care organizations to deploy
capabilities that support all payers and patients – not just Aetna
members. The Aetna models and capabilities are described on the
company’s new aligned care website at www.aetnaacs.com. Aetna
products and services that support value-driven, patient-centered,
accountable care include:
- Commercial, Provider group employee
plans, Medicare and Medicaid collaborations -- backed by payment
models that support shared accountability for the health outcomes,
patient satisfaction and overall efficiency of care
- Aetna-branded, co-branded and
provider-sponsored health plans
- Health plan services, including
licensing, actuarial and underwriting, and claims and member
services
- Care management services
- Patient engagement programs and
tools
- Health information exchange (HIE) and
health information technology (HIT) capabilities through Medicity
and ActiveHealth Management
- Clinical and analytics capabilities
through Aetna, ActiveHealth Management and HDMS
- Consulting services based on years of
experience in serving large, self-funded sponsors with custom
health care products
“Health care is entering into an era of unprecedented
change. New federal policies, such as the HITECH Act and the
Affordable Care Act, unrelenting cost pressures, and a new
willingness to embrace innovation have created significant clinical
and financial opportunities for new leadership in the health care
industry,” said Kennedy. “Aetna’s health information
technology assets, efficient health plan services, and commitment
to collaborate with physicians, hospitals, and medical groups in
new ways will help transform health care into a more cost-efficient
and effective industry.”
Dr. Kennedy is a recognized expert in health care and health
information technology. He was a founding commissioner of the
Certification Commission for Health Information Technology (CCHIT),
the first organization recognized by the federal government to
certify EMRs. He is currently the health insurance industry
representative on the HIT Policy Committee, a Federal Advisory
Committee that is guiding Centers for Medicare and Medicaid
Services (CMS) policies to allocate $40 billion in federal funding
for HIT deployment.
Dr. Kennedy joins Aetna from WellPoint Inc. where he was vice
president of Health Information Technology. Prior to WellPoint, Dr.
Kennedy served as chief executive officer at CareAssured, which he
co-founded, and previously as director of Strategic Informatics at
Blue Shield of California. Prior to Blue Shield, Dr. Kennedy served
in consulting positions at Electronic Data Systems and its
management consulting subsidiary, A.T. Kearney. He was on the
medical staff at Kaiser Permanente and other Northern California
medical facilities for seven years. He holds an M.D. in Internal
Medicine from the University of California at Los Angeles, an MBA
in Corporate Strategy and Health Care Economics from Stanford
University, and a bachelor’s degree in Genetics from the University
of California at Berkeley.
About Aetna
Aetna is one of the nation’s leading diversified health care
benefits companies, serving approximately 33.8 million people with
information and resources to help them make better informed
decisions about their health care. Aetna offers a broad range of
traditional, voluntary and consumer-directed health insurance
products and related services, including medical, pharmacy, dental,
behavioral health, group life and disability plans, and medical
management capabilities and health care management services for
Medicaid plans. Our customers include employer groups, individuals,
college students, part-time and hourly workers, health plans,
governmental units, government-sponsored plans, labor groups and
expatriates. For more information, see www.aetna.com.
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