Bethany M. Gilboard Named First CEO of IHANY

Bethany Gilboard

Experienced health care administrator Bethany M. Gilboard has been named as the first Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Innovative Health Alliance of New York, LLC (IHANY).

In this role, Gilboard is tasked with overseeing the successful development and implementation of IHANY, a collaboration among doctors, health systems and health care providers in New York’s Capital Region. The members of IHANY are aimed at improving the health of the communities they serve by working together in new, more coordinated ways.

IHANY is the Capital Region’s first Clinically Integrated Network (CIN). Formed in June 2014 as an alliance between physicians, St. Peter’s Health Partners and Ellis Medicine, IHANY has grown to include many additional partners. In today’s evolving health care landscape, clinical integration is essential to achieving the three-part aim of better health for the community, better care for individuals, and lower costs of health care.

IHANY is governed by a board of directors, which is predominantly composed of physicians. This physician-led endeavor is designed to control health care costs and ensure patient care quality by enabling physicians, health systems, such as Ellis Medicine, St. Peter’s Health Partners, St. Mary’s Healthcare (Amsterdam), and other health care providers, like Hometown Health, to work together in joint contracting and to share incentive-based payments.

In December 2014, IHANY was approved by the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) as an Accountable Care Organization (ACO) for the Medicare Shared Savings Program (MSSP). MSSP was created under the Affordable Care Act to help health care providers better coordinate care for Medicare fee-for-service beneficiaries through ACOs. The MSSP rewards ACOs that reduce their growth in health care costs while meeting quality and patient satisfaction standards.

William Busino, Jr., M.D., president of the IHANY board of directors, and an internist with Capital Care Medical Group, said, “The Board of IHANY is extremely pleased to have been able to recruit an individual with Bethany Gilboard’s talents. IHANY and the entire Capital Region will benefit from her wealth of experience, and proven track record of success in strategic planning, consensus building, and population health management.”

“Bethany Gilboard is a dynamic, accomplished leader and we are pleased to welcome her as CEO of IHANY,” said James K. Reed, M.D., president and CEO of St. Peter’s Health Partners. “Last summer, St. Peter’s Health Partners and Ellis Medicine created this alliance and promised to help guide it into a platform for collaboration and innovation. This appointment is another major step towards fulfilling that promise. IHANY will allow our health systems, community physicians, and other partners to navigate the major changes and market forces that are changing health care.”

“With a skilled new leader in place, strong partners, a robust organizational framework, and approval as an Accountable Care Organization, IHANY is well-positioned to help transform health care in the Capital Region,” said Paul A. Milton, acting president and chief executive officer of Ellis Medicine. “Working together, IHANY partners are moving closer toward the shared goals of improved community health, better care for individuals, and lower health care costs.”

Prior to joining IHANY, Gilboard served since 2012 as president of Metro West Accountable Health Care Organization, a 225-member physician hospital organization representing over 20,000 covered lives in Massachusetts. As part of this role, she built the administrative and clinical infrastructure to support a regional, multi-hospital ACO, and in 2013 secured approval for the formation of the Collaborative Health ACO.

Gilboard served from 2006-2010 as Director of Health Technologies, and from 2010-2012 as Director of the Massachusetts Regional Extension Center (REC) at the Massachusetts Technology Collaborative in Boston. She led the planning and establishment of the REC, which was funded through the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health Act, part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009. The program promoted the adoption and use of electronic health record technologies connected through a national health information network.

Additionally, she previously served as executive director of the Lowell General Physician Hospital Organization in Lowell, Mass., as well as Director of Managed Care Programs at the Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary in Boston.

Gilboard received her bachelor’s degree from the University of Rochester, her master’s degree in Public Administration, Health Policy, and Planning from New York University, and completed an advanced program in Health Care, Negotiation, and Conflict Resolution at the Harvard School of Public Health.

For more information on IHANY, please visit www.ihany.org