Why I'm Joining Oscar Health

Today I’m thrilled to announce my new role as Oscar Health’s Chief Clinical Officer.

Even after over 25 years serving in leadership roles across the health care industry, I’m most excited at the potential, promise, and impact of this next chapter at Oscar Health. At the Advisory Board, I had the opportunity to launch a Value-Based Care Practice, where we served some of the most prestigious hospitals and doctors in the world. I saw what most of us in the industry recognize as inevitable today—the shift to a consumer-driven, patient centered health care system is underway, and the future is in the hands of the bold innovators who want to set the bar high for the kind of experience and care that patients and members deserve.

Mario Schlosser, Oscar’s co-founder, strikes me as precisely that kind of visionary. In our very first conversation together, I was inspired by Mario’s portrait of a system that begins and ends with empowering patients. Oscar Health is wired differently than other insurance companies I’ve seen—Oscar is uniquely effective at using technology, data, and personalized service to align everyone’s incentives on behalf of the member, linking the health insurer and the provider tightly together through deep technological and clinical integrations.

At the center of that approach is Oscar’s Concierge Model—teams of nurses and care guides that develop strong, personal bonds with Oscar’s members and use clinical insights surfaced by data and technology to guide members through the health care system. The Concierge model recognizes a fundamental truth in health care -- if we want to ensure that our patients receive the highest quality of care, we need to let the needs of patients dictate how we build and structure organizations.

I leave the Advisory Board with immense gratitude for the opportunities and relationships I’ve built with my colleagues, who are among the smartest and most creative thought leaders I’ve ever encountered in the industry. And the opportunity to work with forward-thinking health systems across the country to improve the care they delivered to patients was an honor of a lifetime.

But I can’t deny I’m thrilled to join the team at Oscar Health. During a time of such sweeping change in health care, Oscar has an opportunity to develop innovative new ways to work with providers and elevate the quality and lower the cost of care that Americans receive. I’ll be excited if I can play a small role in that journey.

-Dennis