A message from Todd Van Tol
Aaron Friedkin joins Health Care Value leadership team

I’m pleased to announce that Aaron Friedkin has joined the Health Care Value executive leadership team at Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan. He joined Blue Cross nearly four years ago and previously served with our Health Plan Business division.

As the senior vice president for Care Delivery Transformation, Aaron will be responsible for developing and implementing some of our core provider enablement strategies, including our value-based programs. He’ll also work to enhance the quality and affordability of care delivery.

During his time at Blue Cross, he’s led efforts to develop and deploy new programs and solutions to meet the unique needs of our members and employer group customers.

As you know, Blue Cross has a long history of supporting high-quality, affordable member care. Members and group customers have set high expectations for how we can engage individuals in multiple health care settings — for example, in doctor’s offices, in the home and virtually.

We know that physicians want to spend time focusing on patient care, and not on navigating administrative hurdles to care delivery. At Blue Cross, both our short- and long-term objectives are to make physicians’ lives easier. We hope to help them feel increasingly comfortable engaging in value- and risk-based contracts that align quality care outcomes with financial incentives.

Aaron’s experience and leadership are essential to the execution of our multifaceted care delivery strategy. He’ll be working with our physician and hospital partners to blend established models, such as our Physician Group Incentive Program and Patient-Centered Medical Home program, with risk-based initiatives designed to encourage appropriate, convenient and integrated member care.

Background
Before joining Blue Cross, as we wrote in a previous column in this newsletter, Aaron held leadership roles at Blue Cross Blue Shield of Minnesota, where he developed and implemented consulting and reporting approaches for clients. He focused on insights gleaned from analytics, helping to implement effective care management programs.

Going forward
Over the next several months, he’s looking forward to reaching out to many of our provider partners as he continues to hone our care delivery strategy. He’ll collaborate with provider and hospital contracting teams, as well as individuals from our Value Partnerships team, to create synergies across multiple provider-facing programs. By learning more about the needs of the physician and hospital community, he’ll be able to help providers focus on their primary job of choice: patient care.

Aaron will be introducing himself during the June 11 PGIP quarterly meeting. He’ll spend time talking to with our physician partners and sharing more about his vision.

If you’re not a member of PGIP and would like to learn more about joining, contact your physician organization or email valuepartnerships@bcbsm.com.

Please join me in welcoming Aaron to the Heath Care Value team.

Todd Van Tol is senior vice president, Health Care Value, for Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan.

Todd Van Tol	Aaron Friedkin

Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan and Blue Care Network are nonprofit corporations and independent licensees of the Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association.