William Winkenwerder Jr.

William Winkenwerder Jr.
Born	Asheville, North Carolina
Nationality	American
Occupation	Chief Executive Officer and Physician
Known for	United States Assistant Secretary of Defense for Health Affairs; CEO Highmark Health

William Winkenwerder Jr. is a physician and prominent American health care industry leader. Most recently he served as CEO at Highmark, one of the country’s largest diversified health insurance companies, and as Assistant Secretary of Defense for Health Affairs. He also has served in other executive positions within the health industry, including as founder of a health care strategy consulting firm focused on transformative change and innovative health care technologies.

Career

Highmark Health

Dr. Winkenwerder most recently served as CEO at Highmark, a diversified health care enterprise with $17 billion in revenues, 38,000 employees and 35 million individual customers.^[1] Highmark comprises several Blue Cross Blue Shield health plans; subsidiary companies in vision care, dental insurance, and stop-loss insurance coverage; an IT services company; and a large integrated care delivery network with seven hospitals and more than 2,000 affiliated physicians.^[2]

During Dr. Winkenwerder’s tenure at Highmark he led several acquisitions, restructured the company overall, introduced new products, created new business units, and successfully managed the initial phases of implementation for the Affordable Care Act. Dr. Winkenwerder secured important new partnerships for Highmark with Johns Hopkins Medicine and Carnegie Mellon University. As CEO, he increased revenues by nearly $4 billion overall, and the company added 18,000 new employees.^[3] In 2014 Dr. Winkenwerder resigned his role with Highmark to pursue new opportunities.

The Winkenwerder Company

Prior to Highmark Health, Dr. Winkenwerder served as Chairman of The Winkenwerder Company, specializing in strategic advisory services to innovative health care organizations. The firm’s clients included large, prominent US health care organizations such as Kaiser Permanente and Johns Hopkins Medicine, and leading technology companies introducing new IT solutions to the health care sector, such as Microsoft Corporation, 3M Corporation, and Harris Corporation.

Bill Winkenwerder has served on boards of directors for publicly held and private corporations, and charitable health care organizations. Corporations include Logistics Health Inc. (now a part of United Health Group,) Athenahealth, Inc., CapGemini Government Solutions. Charitable organizations include The CEO Roundtable on Cancer, C-Change (an alliance of organizations fighting cancer founded by Former President George H. W. Bush and former First Lady Barbara Bush), The Bob Woodruff Foundation (founded by ABC News anchor Bob Woodruff and wife Lee Woodruff, dedicated to the needs of military families dealing with traumatic brain injury.)^[4] Dr. Winkenwerder served as a Board Director of The Davidson College Athletic Foundation, his alma mater where he was aquarterback on the football team.

Department of Defense

From October 2001 through April 2007 Dr. Winkenwerder served as Assistant Secretary of Defense for Health Affairs in the United States Department of Defense.^[5] His Senate Confirmation was sponsored and presented to the US Senate Armed Services Committee by Senator Ted Kennedy of Massachusetts.

At the Department of Defense, Dr. Winkenwerderwas the leader of the Military Health System and the principal medical advisor to the Secretary of Defense, responsible for medical services provided to all active and retired military service members throughout all branches of service. With responsibility for a budget of $40 billion and over 130,000 personnel worldwide, the Military Health System Provides care for 9.2 million military service members and families through a global network of private physicians and more than 70 hospitals worldwide, known as TRICARE.^[6][7]

During Dr. Winkenwerder’s service there were significant advances in battlefield medicine, expanded mental health programs, and new benefits designated for U.S National Guard units and reservists. He led the global implementation of the Armed Forces Health Longitudinal Technology Application(AHLTA), a highly controversial and near-universally criticized electronic medical record system. Dr Winkenwerder's refusal to use an already established and well-regarded electronic medical system, such as the VistA system used by the Veterans Administration facilities, resulted in the implementation of a highly inferior product at an estimated total cost of $20 billion (four times the initial budget estimate).^[8] He also steered the critical cost-effective consolidation of Walter Reed Army Hospital and Bethesda Naval Hospital in Washington, DC.^[9]

In addition, Dr. Winkenwerder responded to global humanitarian health crises (such as the 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake and tsunami, Hurricane Katrina, and earthquakes in Pakistan,) as well as domestic threats of anthrax and smallpox attacks, while insuring the protection of military service members and families in all global threat situations. Dr. Winkenwerder was elected Chairman of the International Committee of Military Medicine (ICMM) a 90-country organization representing all major nations of the world.^[10]

Early career professional achievements

Prior to serving in the public sector, Dr. Winkenwerder also worked as a senior executive in the private health care industry, and as a practicing physician. With education in medicine (University of North Carolina School of Medicine) and health care finance (The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania), Dr. Winkenwerder offered notable insights early in his career that were central to the finance and delivery of cost-effective health care to a broad base of patient populations. Of note was his early advocacy of evidence-based medicine, prevention and clinical practice guidelines, which are now widely viewed as significant elements for high standards of care.^[11]

Dr. Winkenwerder served as an executive at Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts, for Prudential Healthcare (now Aetna) and at Emory Healthcare of Emory University – now the largest provider of healthcare in the State of Georgia. The national trade association for health plans and insurers recognized his innovative leadership and asked him to join their board of directors (AHIP.)^[5][12]

Recognition and media

Recognition

Dr. Winkenwerder has been recognized for his professional achievements by

• The American Medical Association^[13]
• The University of North Carolina^[14]
• The Wharton School
• Davidson College^[15]
• The United States Department of Defense.^[16]

Media

• He has appeared on national television and cable news, to address solutions for a variety of health care issues
• He has been published or been interviewed by many print media outlets
• He has testified before the U.S. Congress
• He is a frequent public speaker to large audiences.^[17]
• Presidential candidates in the national elections of 2008 and 2012 have sought his counsel.^[18][19]

Dr. Winkenwerder is a graduate of Davidson College and The University of North Carolina Medical School. He received his Masters in Business Administration from The Wharton School, of The University of Pennsylvania.^[20] Dr. Winkenwerder is board certified in internal medicine, and a fellow of The American College of Physicians. He has received awards and recognition from each of these institutions, post graduation, for his outstanding professional achievements in health care finance and management throughout the private and public sectors.

References

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