Insights

Health Management Associates (HMA), a leading independent, national healthcare consulting firm today announced that it is establishing offices in North Carolina and New Orleans.

In North Carolina, HMA will have a presence in Raleigh and Charlotte with plans to continue building out the North Carolina team in the coming months.

The Focus Group, based in New Orleans, joined HMA in 2022, and HMA continues to expand its footprint there adding new colleagues from the area to its roster of experts. They will share office space at The Focus Group’s current Poydras Street location.

“Our firm’s continued growth is designed to support the current and future needs of our clients across the country,” said Doug Elwell, HMA’s chief executive officer. “We are excited to plant roots in North Carolina and expand our talented team in New Orleans as we help clients successfully navigate the toughest challenges facing healthcare and human services.”

About HMA

Founded in 1985, HMA is an independent, national research and consulting firm specializing in publicly funded healthcare and human services policy, programs, financing, and evaluation. Clients include government, public and private providers, health systems, health plans, community-based organizations, institutional investors, foundations, and associations. With offices in more than 30 locations across the country and over 700 multidisciplinary consultants coast to coast, HMA’s expertise, services, and team are always within client reach. Learn more about HMA at healthmanagement.com, or on LinkedIn and X.

Today, Health Management Associates (HMA) launched the Leavitt Center for Alliances, an HMA Initiative, which aims to elevate the national discourse on healthcare and help healthcare organizations solve their most complex challenges through consensus-based alliances.

The Leavitt Center for Alliances (Leavitt Center) is home to expert conveners who have decades of experience in the private sector and government. They have spent years fine tuning the process for building successful alliances that bring multi-sector stakeholders to the table with a commitment to reaching consensus, real-world solutions. Governor Mike Leavitt served as Secretary of the United States Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). Rich McKeown, served as Chief of Staff at HHS. The two of them founded Leavitt Partners, where they advanced the science of alliance building. Their book “Finding Allies, Building Alliances” mapped out eight crucial elements of successful alliances, providing a framework for the work and resources that now serve as the foundation for the Leavitt Center.

“Now more than ever, alliances offer a proven way forward, beyond the divisiveness, partisanship and uncivil discourse that too often stagnates momentum toward tangible progress,” said Leavitt, HMA co-chairman and Leavitt Partners chairman, Board of Managers. “Our approach to multi-sector consensus-based alliances, rooted in collaboration, has consistently helped organizations identify and develop solutions to some of the most complicated issues. It is a roadmap for bridging divides and realizing results.”

The Leavitt Center guides stakeholders through each step of the process to form alliances, develop consensus within those alliances, and then put a strategic plan into action that drives results. Expertly convened alliances solve the tough problems that are too big for individual organizations to tackle alone, leverage shared resources and expertise, and provide for “strength in numbers.”

“The expertise our Leavitt Center colleagues have when it comes to both the art and the science of creating and deploying alliances to develop innovative solutions is unmatched,” said Jay Rosen, founder, president, and co-chairman of HMA. “I see great potential for combining that know-how with our on-the-ground experts throughout all of HMA to expand this proven alliance approach beyond the federal landscape and into communities across the country.”

Leavitt Center experts have helped more than 50 alliances achieve impactful outcomes, including the Dual Eligible Coalition founded in 2017 to develop actionable, long-term policy and programmatic solutions to improve the delivery of care and outcomes for the dual eligible population. Other alliances include the CARIN Alliance, focused on improving access to digital health information, the Pharmaceutical Distribution Security Alliance (PDSA), and the COVID Patient Recovery Alliance. Other examples of alliances in action can be found here. Currently Leavitt Center experts are drawing from their past decade of alliance work to share insights in a new book, scheduled for release in 2023.

Founded in 1985, HMA is an independent, national research and consulting firm specializing in publicly funded healthcare and human services policy, programs, financing, and evaluation. Clients include government, public and private providers, health systems, health plans, community-based organizations, institutional investors, foundations, and associations. With offices in more than 20 locations across the country and over 500 multidisciplinary consultants coast to coast, HMA’s expertise, services, and team are always within client reach.

Leavitt Center for Alliances: https://leavittcenterforalliances.com/

Today, Jay Rosen, founder, president, and co-chairman of Health Management Associates (HMA), and David Kulick, co-founder of Adaptation Health, announced that Adaptation Health is joining HMA. It will continue to operate as Adaptation Health, an HMA Company.

Founded in 2017, Adaptation Health is an innovation consultancy and incubator based in New Orleans that works with state Medicaid programs and managed care organizations (MCOs) to drive adoption of new delivery and engagement solutions. Adaptation brings together leaders from these sectors to solve systemic problems in publicly funded healthcare.

“Like HMA, Adaptation Health has innovation in its DNA,” Rosen said. “I’m excited to pair HMA’s unmatched Medicaid expertise with Adaptation Health’s creative approach and laser focus for tackling the complex challenges related to Medicaid to benefit those the program serves.”

Adaptation Health has worked across dozens of states and MCOs to build private market innovation through expert vendor sourcing, diligence, and deployment driving improvements in member care, acceleration of equity, and supporting positive evolution in public market delivery. They have directly worked with over 500 startups and early Medicaid-focused companies to enable best-in-class solutions for the public good.

“We are very excited to join HMA as they are pre-eminent Medicaid experts. We believe that through this partnership Adaptation Health can continue to support states and MCOs across the country in accelerating Medicaid performance, value, and innovation.” Kulick said.

Kulick will continue to lead Adaptation Health, an HMA Company. Terms of the transaction were not disclosed.

Founded in 1985, HMA is an independent, national research and consulting firm specializing in publicly funded healthcare and human services policy, programs, financing, and evaluation. Clients include government, public and private providers, health systems, health plans, community-based organizations, institutional investors, foundations, and associations. With offices in more than 20 locations across the country and over 500 multidisciplinary consultants coast to coast, HMA’s expertise, services, and team are always within client reach.

HMA: https://www.healthmanagement.com/

Adaptation Health: https://www.adaptationhealth.org/

Today, Jay Rosen, founder, president, and co-chairman of Health Management Associates (HMA), and David Kulick, founder and managing director of The Focus Group, announced the merger of the two firms. The Focus Group will continue to operate as The Focus Group, an HMA Company.

Founded in 2014, The Focus Group, based in New Orleans, helps healthcare clients navigate the intersection of healthcare policy, payment, and delivery by devising and implementing strategies that create change and fuel growth. Led by public market and business transformation experts, Kulick and Alex Rich have partnered with hundreds of company executives to solve complex challenges and deliver high-value projects. The Focus Group services include market intelligence, strategy development, business transformation, and go-to market execution for providers, payers, life sciences, health foundations, and private equity investors.

“The Focus Group brings extensive expertise across the healthcare spectrum, driving growth for a wide array of clients,” Rosen said. “We’re excited to add their unique approach to managing change and commitment to innovation to our impressive lineup of experts as we continue to expand the ways we can serve our clients and partners.”

“We are thrilled to merge with HMA and drive greater value to our clients. This is a strategic opportunity to link HMA’s vast depth in healthcare policy and payment with our focus on commercial growth to lead the charge together for positive evolution in healthcare delivery,” Kulick said.

Kulick and Rich will continue to lead The Focus Group, an HMA Company, as managing directors. Terms of the transaction were not disclosed.

Founded in 1985, HMA is an independent, national research and consulting firm specializing in publicly funded healthcare and human services policy, programs, financing, and evaluation. Clients include government, public and private providers, health systems, health plans, community-based organizations, institutional investors, foundations, and associations. With offices in more than 20 locations across the country and over 500 multidisciplinary consultants coast to coast, HMA’s expertise, services, and team are always within client reach.

HMA: https://www.healthmanagement.com/

The Focus Group: https://www.thefocusgroup.solutions/