Medical College of Wisconsin Names Kurt Janavitz as Senior Vice President of Healthcare Partnerships and Strategy

Milwaukee, April 4, 2017 – Kurt L. Janavitz, MBA, has been named senior vice president, healthcare partnerships and strategy for the Medical College of Wisconsin (MCW), effective April 17, 2017. Janavitz previously served as chief executive officer for Integrated Health Network of Wisconsin (IHN) from January 2015–April 2017.

Within MCW, Janavitz is responsible for ensuring the execution of MCW’s strategic initiatives through healthcare partnerships. He will establish influential relationships with strategic healthcare partners, emerging clinical enterprises and alliances – all of which will support and create opportunities for MCW’s long-term growth in Milwaukee, Madison and communities partnered with its regional campuses. Additionally, Janavitz will develop and support strategic alliances related to new clinical and academic opportunities for MCW and advise senior leadership in the identification of new business, community, regional and national partnerships.

“I am excited about this new opportunity, as it will enable me to apply my local and national market expertise and industry experiences, as well as help grow and improve MCW’s already preeminent clinical, educational and research enterprises,” said Janavitz. “I look forward to the challenges ahead and am grateful that MCW is entrusting me with such a significant role.”

Janavitz has more than 25 years of experience in healthcare finance, strategy, operations and marketing with payers, providers and management consulting organizations. As CEO of IHN, the state’s first clinically integrated accountable care organization, Janavitz built and managed a team of 50 individuals responsible for negotiating, implementing and managing payer shared savings and risk relationships, as well as developing, marketing, implementing and managing direct-to-employer sales to improve quality of care while reducing costs through clinical integration. During his tenure, IHN grew to become a network of eight independent health systems, 52 hospitals and 8,400 physicians that touched 3.1 million lives. Members included Agnesian HealthCare, Columbia St. Mary’s, Froedtert Health, Hospital Sisters Health System, the Medical College of Wisconsin, Ministry Health Care and Wheaton Franciscan Healthcare.  In 2016, Janavitz was named one of 16 area business executives to watch by the Milwaukee Business Journal.

“We are very pleased that Kurt will be joining us in the coming weeks,” said John R. Raymond, Sr., MD, MCW’s president and chief executive officer. “In addition to his experience and expertise, Kurt brings incredible enthusiasm about MCW and a strong work ethic to our team.”

Prior to joining IHN, Janavitz was senior vice president of Payer Contracting and Relations for 21st Century Oncology from 2011-2014. From 2009-2011, he served as vice president of Provider Management for Assurant Health and vice president of Network Management for UnitedHealth Group from 2004-2009. In these roles, he led teams responsible for negotiating provider and network contracts and managing physician, hospital and ancillary relationships – accounting for billions of dollars in annual health plan spend. Earlier in his career, Janavitz held leadership roles with Truven Health Analytics, Navigant Consulting, Berkshire Hathaway Insurance Group and Ernst & Young, helping physicians and large integrated delivery systems successfully address critical strategic and operational challenges.

Janavitz received a Bachelor of Arts degree from Tufts Unversity (Boston, Mass.) in 1988 and a Master of Business Administration degree in finance, marketing and organizational behavior from the J.L. Kellogg Graduate School of Management at Northwestern University in 1994.

About the Medical College of Wisconsin

Founded in 1893, The Medical College of Wisconsin is dedicated to leadership and excellence in education, patient care, research and community engagement.  More than 1,200 students are enrolled in MCW’s medical school and graduate school programs in Milwaukee, 56 medical students enrolled at MCW-Green Bay, and 26 students matriculated to MCW-Central Wisconsin in 2016. MCW’s School of Pharmacy will open in 2017 or 2018 with an initial class size of 60 students. A major national research center, MCW is the largest research institution in the Milwaukee metro area and second largest in Wisconsin. In FY2015, faculty received more than $158 million in external support for research, teaching, training and related purposes. This total includes highly competitive research and training awards from the National Institutes of Health (NIH). Annually, MCW faculty direct or collaborate on more than 3,200 research studies, including clinical trials. Additionally, more than 1,500 physicians provide care in virtually every specialty of medicine for more than 525,000 patients annually.

NOTE: This press release was submitted to Urban Milwaukee and was not written by an Urban Milwaukee writer. It has not been verified for its accuracy or completeness.