Aledade has chosen Dr. Mandy Cohen, former secretary of the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services, to run its new health services unit starting in March. Cohen will also serve as Aledade's executive vice president, the company announced on Tuesday.
As CEO of Aledade Care Solutions, Cohen will lead efforts for more than a thousand primary care practices in the parent company's network of accountable care organizations.
Cohen has more than 15 years of experience in public service, as a director of women's health within the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs and later as a senior advisor for the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.
"The mission of Aledade and the work that I've done previously in the public sector were really aligned," Cohen said.
While at HHS, Cohen received national recognition for transitioning North Carolina's Medicaid program to managed care and she is credited with integrating data accountability and transparency into the state's COVID-19 response.
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In 2021 Cohen was elected to the National Academy of Medicine, and she currently works as an adjunct professor at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Gillings School of Global Public Health.
"I have always been impressed with her proven track record of delivering results for people who need high-quality, whole-person care, and we are thrilled that she will be helping to guide this next phase in our growth," said Dr. Farzad Mostashari, co-founder and CEO of Aledade, in a news release.
Cohen said she her new role will be to assist the health services unit in looking for virtual care interventions that can help Aledade's nearly 2 million primary care patients.
Aledade's recent acquisition of Iris Healthcare, a company that offers advanced care planning services, is one example of how Aledade Care Solutions plans to address care needs, she said.
Initially, Cohen said she plans to lead the organization's work to support the increasing number of patients enrolled in Medicaid programs and served by Aledade's practices and health centers.
"I'm going to be helping Aledade think about how they can build out their practices that serve Medicaid patients," she said. "It's another way of bringing the benefits of value-based care to patients across payers, which really drives towards the company's interest in getting to health equity."
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