Published on January 10, 2012

ProHealth Care’s Kathy Scott Selected as CMS Innovation Advisor

Program to Improve Care for Patients 

WAUKESHA, WI – ProHealth Care announced today that Kathy Scott, Ph.D., chief innovation officer, has been selected for the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services’ (CMS) Innovation Advisors Program.

Scott is one of 73 professionals from 27 states and the District of Columbia participating in the Innovation Advisors program.  Innovation advisors will work with the CMS Innovation Center to test new models of care delivery in their own organizations and communities. They also will create partnerships to find new ideas that work and share them regionally and across the United States.

Scott is the only person chosen for the program from the Milwaukee area.

Through the Innovation Advisors program, Scott plans to create a model that will better coordinate care for patients with chronic illness, particularly diabetes and heart failure, across the ProHealth Care system and in collaboration with physicians in ProHealth’s Accountable Care Organization. Scott’s work will leverage the strengths of an advanced electronic medical record system ProHealth Care implemented last fall.

“The CMS program is a great opportunity for ProHealth Care to collaborate with innovators from across the country in developing care models that help patients more easily navigate through all of the levels of health care,” Scott said. “The result will be higher quality, better coordinated care that also costs less.”

Scott was previously senior VP of clinical delivery at Banner Health, and has served in a variety of executive roles including regional VP of clinical services, chief operating officer and chief nursing officer. She is a Fellow in the American College of Healthcare Executives (FACHE). Scott earned a bachelor of science in nursing, masters in public health administration and doctor of philosophy in healthcare administration and organizational systems.

Funding for this initiative was made possible by the Affordable Care Act. 

“There has been an incredible groundswell of interest in becoming an Innovation Advisor,” said CMS Acting Administrator Marilyn Tavenner. 

The 73 individuals were selected from among 920 applications through a competitive process. The 73 include clinicians, allied health professionals, health administrators and others.  By working together, the advisors will be able to deepen their knowledge of health care economics and finance, population health, systems analysis and operations research.  

Among other duties, the advisors will be expected to support the Innovation Center in testing new models of care delivery, to form partnerships with local organizations to drive delivery system reform, and to improve their own health systems so their communities will have better health and better care at a lower cost.

ProHealth Care will receive a stipend of up to $20,000 to support Scott’s activities while serving as an innovation advisor. 

More information about the Innovation Advisors program, including a fact sheet and a list of participants and their affiliated organizations, can be found at: http://innovations.cms.gov/initiatives/innovation-advisors/index.html.