Former Landmark Health CEO Tapped to Lead HHS Value-Based Transformation

This is the fourth senior adviser hired to lead HHS Secretary Alex Azar's four priority areas.

Adam Boehler, the founder and former CEO of Landmark Health, will serve as senior adviser for value-based transformation and innovation, Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar announced Wednesday.

Boehler, who also founded laboratory benefit management firm Avalon Health Solutions, has been serving as director of the Center for Medicare & Medicaid Innovation (CMMI) since April. He will retain that position while taking on his new advisory role.

"Adam is the kind of results-oriented, transformational leader we need to deliver on what President Trump has promised the American people: better healthcare at a lower cost," Azar said in a statement.

"At CMMI, he has already demonstrated an ambition for bold change, and will now be able to bring his deep experience with private sector innovation to help HHS execute on the long-talked-about goal of transforming our healthcare system into one that pays for value," Azar added.

Related: HHS Hires Former Anthem Exec to Address Health Insurance Costs

Boehler's appointment marks the fourth senior adviser Azar has named to take the lead on his four priority areas: fighting the opioid crisis, reducing prescription drug costs, grappling with both the availability and cost of health plans, and transforming U.S. healthcare into a value-based system.

1. Opioid crisis: Brett Giroir, MD, assistant secretary for health, was named senior adviser for mental health and opioid policy in March. Since then, Giroir has added coordination and policy planning to the HHS response to the opioid crisis, Azar said.
    
2. Drug costs: Daniel M. Best, was named senior adviser for drug pricing reform in March. Since then, Best has taken a leading role in the development of the drug-pricing blueprint released in May and other HHS efforts to lower drug costs, Azar said. Best previously served as corporate vice president of industry relations for CVS Health's Medicare Part D business; before that, he worked for Pfizer Pharmaceuticals more than a decade.
    
3. Health plans: James "Jim" Parker, MBA, was named senior adviser for health reform in April. Parker, who worked more than two decades for Anthem, has been tasked with working to address health plan cost and availability. In the past few months, Parker has led HHS efforts to "expand choice and competition in the individual and small-group insurance markets within the constraints of the Affordable Care Act," Azar said Wednesday.
    
4. Value-based transformation: As the U.S. healthcare system continues to move toward value-based models, Boehler's role will be to advise HHS on how it can guide and prod that shift—which Azar identified last spring as among his top four priorities for the department.
    

The HHS announcement notes that Boehler's work history includes a time as an operating partner with private equity firm Francisco Partners, where he focused on investments in healthcare technology and services.