50 Most Influential Physician Executives – 2016
Rank: 38
Craig Samitt
Chief clinical officer, Anthem
After building his career on the East Coast, Dr. Craig Samitt now sits as a powerful healthcare player both in the Midwest and in the heart of the nation's capital. Samitt served his medical residency in Boston and went on to work at several places in the greater Boston area. But it was during his tenure as CEO of Dean Health System, the doctor-based system and insurer in Madison, Wis., in which he was thrown into the national spotlight. In 2012 while he was at Dean, Samitt was named to the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission, the quietly influential federal agency that advises Congress on all things Medicare. He also served briefly as CEO of Healthcare Partners, part of dialysis giant DaVita Healthcare Partners. Samitt, 51, now the leading clinical voice at Anthem, has been particularly vocal about Medicare more widely adopting electronic medical visits. "I think we should be embracing telehealth faster than we are in the industry," he said at MedPAC's most recent March meeting.