Susan Dentzer named president and CEO of America's Physician Groups

Photo courtesy of America's Physician Groups

America's Physician Groups kicked off a new era of its leadership last week when it named Susan Dentzer its new president and CEO, a position that she will officially assume in March.

Dentzer, a well-known and highly-regarded thought leader in healthcare policy, is currently senior policy fellow at the Robert J. Margolis Center for Health Policy. Bill Wulf, board chair and CEO of Central Ohio Primary Care Physicians, said in a statement that Dentzer's knowledge, experience and reputation will allow APG to "continue its role as the foremost leader representing physician groups committed to the movement toward value-based care."

In her own statement, Dentzer said that healthcare in the U.S. "must become more patient-centered, coordinated, integrated, and accountable for both cost and quality."

WHAT'S THE IMPACT?

Dentzer is an elected member of the National Academy of Medicine and the Council on Foreign Relations. In her work at Duke-Margolis, she focused on reforms in healthcare payment and delivery, and the transition to value-based care. 

From 2016-2019, she was president and CEO of the Network for Excellence in Health Innovation, a nonprofit multi-stakeholder organization focused on policies to advance healthcare innovation. She was also the editor and lead author of "Health Care Without Walls: A Roadmap for Reinventing U.S. Health Care."

From 2013 to 2016, she was senior policy advisor to the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. From 2008-2013, she was editor-in-chief of the policy journal Health Affairs, where she led its transformation to a highly topical monthly publication and website. 

Previously, she was an award-winning journalist, serving as the on-air health correspondent and head of the health policy unit for PBS NewsHour.

Dentzer is a frequent speaker and commentator on television and radio and has authored numerous commentaries and analyses on healthcare policy. She is chair of the Board of Directors at Research!America, which advocates for greater investment in research to advance societal health, and a member of the Board of Directors of the International Rescue Committee, a humanitarian organization.

She holds both a B.A. and a Master's Degree in Health Care Delivery Science from Dartmouth, and is also a trustee emerita of the university. She was the first woman to chair its Board of Trustees and currently serves on advisory boards for the Center for Global Health Equity at the Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth and for the Philip R. Lee Institute for Health Policy Studies at the University of California, San Francisco.

THE LARGER TREND

America's Physician Groups is a national association representing more than 335 physician groups with approximately 170,000 physicians providing care to nearly 90 million patients.

In July 2021, APG was among 14 national health stakeholder groups that praised the introduction of The Value in Health Care Act, which proposed increasing Medicare Shared Savings rates, updating risk adjustment rules, eliminating the artificial distinction between "high" and "low" revenue ACOs, addressing ACOs' "rural glitch," and restarting the ACO Investment Model.

Twitter: @JELagasse
Email the writer: jeff.lagasse@himssmedia.com