Two New Members Join Primary Care Collaborative Board of Directors
WASHINGTON, Feb. 2, 2021—The Primary Care Collaborative (PCC) is welcoming two new members to its board of directors in 2021: Laura Sessums, JD, MD, Chief Care Transformation, Medical Director at Anthem, Inc.; and Baligh Yehia, MD, MPP, FACP, Senior Vice President, Ascension, and President, Ascension Medical Group. The board leads a vibrant and diverse set of 60 executive member organizations that share a commitment to making primary care the foundation of a high-value health system.
“We are thrilled to have Laura and Baligh join the board of directors,” said Ann Greiner, PCC’s president and CEO. “Laura brings a wealth of professional experience that spans both care delivery and policy, in both the public and private sectors, and Anthem has been a key supporter of the PCC since the organization’s inception. Baligh brings a valuable systems perspective, also informed by working in both the public and private sectors, and is leading numerous efforts in primary care delivery/payment innovation across Ascension.”
“Laura and Baligh add strength and expertise to the leadership of the PCC, which is operating in a space that is undergoing tremendous transformation and experiencing huge demands to respond to urgent patient needs during the pandemic,” said Darilyn V. Moyer, MD, FACP, FRCP, FIDSA, board chair and Executive Vice President & Chief Executive Officer of the American College of Physicians. “I look forward to their contributions to making the PCC an even stronger and more effective leader and collaborator in the primary care community.”
Job change
Another member of the PCC board and its treasurer, Sean Hogan, MBA, has recently changed positions and companies. In January, he joined Innovaccer as its General Manager. Earlier in his career, Hogan was the General Manager of IBM’s Healthcare and Life Sciences Unit.
About the two new members:
Dr. Laura Sessums has been the Chief Care Transformation Medical Director at Anthem, Inc. since 2019. In 2013, she joined the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation (CMMI) as the Director of the Division of Advanced Primary Care. At CMMI, she oversaw the Comprehensive Primary Care (CPC) and CPC+ initiatives. Previously, she worked in academic medicine as a clinician-educator, mostly at Walter Reed Army Medical Center (as a civilian), where she served as the Chief of the General Medicine Section. Her professional activities have been in the areas of healthcare policy and advocacy, medical education, senior medical administrative leadership, and scholarship at the intersection of law and medicine. Her research has focused on primary care, particularly ethical and legal domains. She is a practicing general internist and a former lawyer.
Dr. Baligh Yehia first joined Ascension Medical Group in July 2018 to serve as Chief Medical Officer. Prior to that, he was with Johns Hopkins Medicine, Baltimore, where he led enterprise-wide initiatives to improve community health and clinical integration. Prior to that role, Dr. Yehia served as the first Deputy Under Secretary for Health for Community Care at the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA).
A nationally recognized expert in health disparities and HIV medicine, Dr. Yehia has published over 150 articles, abstracts and chapters in leading journals. He has made important contributions to the understanding of patient engagement in healthcare and individual and environmental factors influencing access to and participation in care.
Dr. Yehia is board-certified in internal medicine and infectious diseases. He received his bachelor and medical degrees from the University of Florida, completed an internal medicine residency at Johns Hopkins Hospital, and an infectious diseases fellowship at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania. He also holds a master’s degree in public policy from Princeton University and a master’s of science in health policy research from the University of Pennsylvania.
