L.A. Care Health Plan’s CEO John Baackes will retire at the end of 2024, the company said in a news release Friday.
Baackes took the helm at L.A. Care in 2015, putting him in charge of steering the country's largest publicly operated health plan in serving low-income beneficiaries. Its four plans cover more than 2.7 million people in Los Angeles County.
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During his tenure, Baackes worked to improve healthcare among disadvantaged communities. He oversaw projects to expand the company’s direct network of physicians and to provide an education loan program for physicians opting to provide care to patients regardless of their ability to pay.
Under his leadership, the company has made community health investments, including at organizations addressing homelessness and food insecurity. The health plan also reportedly awarded a $2 million grant to Catalina Island Health, a financially struggling hospital in Avalon, California, to help keep it open, according to a Los Angeles Times report on Friday.
L.A. Care has launched its search for Baackes’ successor, and he will collaborate with the company’s board of governors during his transition, according to the news release.
“Our priority is to identify a successor who will continue John’s work fostering strong relationships with the community and ensuring the plan is responsive to the needs of the diverse residents of Los Angeles County,” Al Ballesteros, chair of L.A. Care’s board of governors, said in the release.
Before joining L.A. Care, Baackes was president of AmeriHealth Caritas VIP Plans, where he led its Medicare Advantage business. He also previously worked as CEO of Senior Whole Health, which provides healthcare to enrollees in Massachusetts and New York.
