Tiara Swindell,
35
Senior director of ACO operations, Tandigm Health
Tiara Swindell has devoted her career to improving the business of primary care. She has launched three accountable care organizations and accomplished a seemingly impossible feat in American healthcare: enhancing outcomes while lowering costs.
The Tandigm Health executive got her start in primary care operations, where she designed programs to improve access. For example, Swindell partnered primary care physicians with ophthalmologists to provide eye exams during primary care check-ups for patients with diabetes. She also briefly managed a hippotherapy center that used horses to help children with disabilities regain motor function.
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See which young leaders made list.In 2021, Swindell joined Tandigm Health and led the Philadelphia-area company's first accountable care organization through the Medicare Shared Savings Program. Since then, she has launched two more ACOs, which have transformed how doctors provide care and how insurers pay for it. These arrangements support 60,000 patients and generate savings for Medicare, according to Tandigm Health.
Swindell hails from Hampton, Virginia, and is motivated by her commitment to community. She enjoys working on ACOs because they enable her to incorporate community benefits and social determinants of health to assist patients and primary care providers.
She said she believes payment models that prioritize population health are vital because they hold healthcare organizations accountable for the outcomes of everyone in the community. In the future, Swindell hopes to work within a healthcare system that treats all patients equitably, regardless of their insurance status.
—Kara Hartnett