Who: Ceci Connolly, 52
New role: President and CEO of the Alliance of Community Health Plans, a Washington-based trade group that represents large not-for-profit health insurers, including Kaiser Permanente and UPMC Health Plan.
Background: Connolly previously was a managing director at PricewaterhouseCoopers' Health Research Institute and a healthcare reporter at the Washington Post.
On higher drug prices: “If a person can't afford the medication, it doesn't matter how good it is. That's very, very obvious for many of the members in these community-based health plans.”
On sharing best practices: “The beauty of the alliance is being able to share the genius and the experience of one plan with all of the others. ACHP is in the position to put together learning collaborations so all those members share in that knowledge. These folks are not competing with each other, and they're eager to do that sharing because they know it kind of goes all around.”
On accepting the position: “I think I'm just at a point in my life and my career where I wanted to have some greater impact and get closer to the action. This seemed like a pretty rare opportunity to do that in a meaningful way.”
