Kasich Names New Health Care Team

Governor John Kasich today signed an executive order establishing an Office of Health Transformation (OHT) and appointed several key health related department directors that he said will work together to bring “greater efficiency and effectiveness” to the delivery of health care in Ohio.

 Tapped to head the new OHT office is Greg Moody, who has been a senior consultant at Health Management Association, Inc. since 2004.  Moody began his public service career in 1991 as a budget associate for then U.S. Rep. Kasich on the House Budget Committee. Later, he served as executive assistant for health and human services in the administration of former Gov. Bob Taft.

Other department directors nominated are:

• Theodore Wymyslo, MD as director of the Department of Health. Dr. Wymyslo has been a family physician, educator, and administrator for 30 years, most recently as an advocate for implementing a patient-centered medical home model of care in Ohio.

• Bonnie Kantor-Burman as director of the Department of Aging. Since 2007, she has been executive director of Pioneer Network, a national center dedicated to developing consumer-directed, long-term care delivery systems. She also was director of the Office of Geriatrics and Gerontology at Ohio State University Health Sciences Center for 15 years.

• John McCarthy, currently Medicaid director in the District of Columbia, as director of the Ohio Medicaid Office. He previously worked with the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services, and with the Department of Developmental Disabilities, on several Medicaid redesign projects.

Three other directors who were appointed last week are also part of the team.  They include Tracy Plouck the state’s current Medicaid director, to lead the Department of Mental Health; John Martin, who will stay on as director of the Department of Developmental Disabilities; and Orman Hall, of Fairfield County, who will become director of the Department of Alcohol and Drug Addiction Services. 

According to the Governor, the new OHT office is intended “to modernize the state’s fragmented Medicaid program and implement cost-containment strategies, drawing on public and private best practices to improve the program’s overall performance.”

The Governor said his administration will focus on outcomes, transparency, preventive care and higher reimbursement for primary care.  He made two points about hospitals, saying, "there are “more heart hospitals in Columbus than there are hearts" and that Medicaid shouldn't pay for re-hospitalizations --“if you screw something up, you can’t get paid for fixing it.”  He also said there would be a big "change in long term care." 

Gov. Kasich’s executive order said Ohio spends more per person on health care than residents in all but 13 states. Medicaid is the largest health payer in the state, with 60 million claims paid to 89,000 providers who served 2.4 million persons in 2010.  To read more, click here:  Executive Order