Jefferson’s CEO Joseph G. Cacchione, MD, announced that Baligh R. Yehia, MD, MPP, MSc, FACP, will become the President of Jefferson Health effective January 17, 2023. Dr. Yehia is a talented physician leader with a proven track record of promoting exceptional quality, safety and patient experiences and leading operations across large integrated systems of care in competitive markets.
Dr. Yehia comes to Jefferson from Ascension, one of the largest nonprofit healthcare systems in the United States. At Ascension, he served as Senior Vice President, leading system-wide health operations and high-priority initiatives, including population health, pharmacy services, behavioral health, virtual care, graduate medical education, and other strategic growth and transformation programs. In addition, he was President of Ascension Medical Group (AMG), one of the largest medical groups in the country with nearly 9,000 clinicians, serving more than 3.5 million individuals and completing more than 17 million patient encounters annually.
Dr. Yehia joined AMG in 2018 to serve as Chief Medical Officer. In that role, he championed clinician engagement and well-being, helping AMG earn Silver designation from the American Medical Association’s Joy in Medicine™ health system recognition program. With a commitment to delivering personalized care to all patients and expanding practice opportunities for clinicians, he developed the medical group’s care model portfolio, access to care program, and virtual care strategy.
“I’m thrilled to welcome Dr. Yehia to Jefferson and believe no one is better suited to lead Jefferson Health at this pivotal moment in healthcare,” said Dr. Joseph G. Cacchione, CEO of Jefferson Health and Thomas Jefferson University. “Having had the opportunity to work with Dr. Yehia previously, I’ve witnessed firsthand his passion for improving community health, as well as his acumen for accelerating transformation and driving growth. His experience with clinical integration across complex organizations like ours will serve us well into the future.”
Prior to Ascension, Dr. Yehia held leadership roles at Johns Hopkins Medicine, the U.S. Department of Veteran’s Affairs (VA), and the University of Pennsylvania. Most notably, he served on the senior leadership team of the VA, the nation’s largest integrated healthcare system, providing care at 1200+ sites to more than 9 million enrolled Veterans. Dr. Yehia was also the First VA Deputy Under Secretary for Health for Community Care. In this capacity, he oversaw the VA’s Community Care Network which included more than 550,000 partners that deliver outpatient, inpatient, telehealth and extended care services to more than 2 million Veterans annually.
“I am honored to become President of Jefferson Health,” said Baligh Yehia, MD, MPP, MSc, FACP. “I am excited to return to Philadelphia and look forward to working with Jefferson’s talented team to care for our diverse communities. I am confident that together, and with the leadership of Dr. Cacchione, we’ll discover new and innovative ways to enhance the overall patient and clinician experience throughout the enterprise.”
A nationally recognized expert in health disparities and HIV medicine, Dr. Yehia has published over 150 articles, abstracts and chapters in leading journals. He has made important contributions to the understanding of patient engagement in healthcare, and individual and environmental factors influencing access to and participation in care. Dr. Yehia has served in leadership positions on numerous boards and councils, and is a former member of the American College of Physicians Board of Regents, American Medical Association Council on Medical Education, and the Maryland State Medical Society Board of Trustees.
Dr. Yehia is board certified in internal medicine and infectious diseases. He received his bachelor and medical degrees from the University of Florida, completed internal medicine residency at Johns Hopkins Hospital, and infectious diseases fellowship at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania. He also holds a Masters in Public Policy from Princeton University and Masters of Science in Health Policy Research from the University of Pennsylvania.
He has been recognized by Modern Healthcare, Becker's Healthcare, the American Medical Association, and the American College of Physicians as a top leader in healthcare.
Some key career accomplishments at Ascension include:
- Expanded new models of care across Ascension’s health system, including virtual care, direct primary care, clinics focused on high-need/high-cost populations, home based primary care, hospital at home, and integrative medicine.
- Expanded virtual care services, launched a national remote monitoring program to help COVID-19 patients recover, and developed a national telehealth platform leading to over three million virtual visits in two years.
- Unified Ascension pharmacy services under a national structure, achieving growth in specialty, mail and retail prescriptions and double patient financial assistance.
- Prioritized the importance of behavioral health, resulting in over 50% increase in behavioral health screening over two years.
- Led efforts to reduce disparities in care, including launching a program to identify and address social determinants of health (SDOH). To date, more than 1.8 million patients were screened for the SDOH, which helped clinicians better understand and address their unique health care needs. Demonstrated improvements in advancing health equity in diabetes, maternal health, and other areas.
- Led progressive movement into value-based care programs, resulting in over one million lives in value-based arrangements.
- Developed a system-wide approach for clinician recruitment, clinical program growth, partnership with independent and employed physicians, and deployment of innovative care models and nudge unit.
- Improved clinician wellbeing scores by 33% over three years by deploying strategies to address practice efficiency, culture of wellbeing, and personal resilience.
